The Hattori-Kudo Files
by MeridianGrimm
Summary: This narrative follows Heiji as he solves mysteries with everyone's favorite pocket-sized Detective of the East. (Not a shipping fic)
1. The Second Room, Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own DC or MK, but I'm totally looking forward to plot advancement (whenever that happens).

This is not intended as a shipping fic; it's meant to be a funny and interesting account of Shinichi (as Conan) and Heiji's cases. Depending on my mood, it may or may not get shippy later on (yeah, that's right, "shippy" is a word now, haha).

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"Aw, why can't I go with Uncle Kogoro, Ran-neechan?"

"Kudo?" Heiji spun around, cursing the lunchtime crowds. He couldn't spot the fun-sized detective, but that was _definitely_ his pouty-child voice reserved for adults.

"What are you doing, Heiji?" Kazuha tugged on his arm. "You promised we were going to see the magic show in the park. Any more stalling and we'll miss it, idiot."

"Hold on, idiot. I thought I heard him."

"Who?"

"Ku– Conan-kun. He just said something to Neechan. Betcha he's here on a case and didn't tell me, the brat." _A case would be the only motivation for Kudo to go anywhere with that dimwitted detective_, he reasoned.

"Heiji! I know you're fond of Conan-kun, but he doesn't need your permission to come to Osaka. He probably just didn't want to see your stupid face."

He ignored her. "Oi! Neechan!" Heiji called, spotting the girl's tall hair some distance away. "Ran-san!" Shinichi's girl turned and found him in the crowd. She waved, grabbing a small hand and forcing both the kid and her father to follow them down the sidewalk.

"Hi," she said brightly when they'd caught up the Osakan pair. "How are you guys? Wow, what are the chances of just running into you two?"

While Ran started catching up with Kazuha, with Kogoro looking bored off to the side, Heiji squatted down to Conan's height. "What brings you to Osaka, Kudo? Miss me?"

"Don't call me that in public," Conan hissed. "Kogoro's here on a case. There was a homicide at a hotel nearby and I was just going to investigate."

Heiji snickered. "I dunno, _Kudo_, it sounded like Neechan was about to veto your involvement in this one. You're lucky I showed up. Just put up a fuss about wanting to hang out with me and they'll let you come."

Conan made a very adult smirk. "I hardly think you were taking Kazuha to a _hotel_."

"Brat. We're not like you and Neechan. Whatever, then, I guess I'll tag along with Occhan and not take you with me."

"Heiji-niichan!" Conan squealed loudly, hugging the other teen's leg like a stuffed toy. "I wanna go with you!" Then, in a lower voice, he added, "If you get to go, I do too."

"Relax, Kudo, I was just teasin' you." He ruffled the other detective's hair, looking up at Kogoro. "The kid says you're here on a case. I can help."

He laughed. "The great Sleeping Kogoro does not need help on a case!" Then he considered. "But, Yoko-chan's on tonight so I want to wrap this up quickly, and no one else can keep that four-eyed squirt out of the way."

"How about the kid and I come with you so Ran-san can go with Kazuha to the magic show?" Without waiting for an answer, Heiji hoisted said kid onto his hip, earning a black look from Conan that promised retribution. "Have fun, girls! So, Conan-kun, where's this hotel?"

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

The client, Yamazaki Hana, was uncomfortable with the great Kogoro bringing a teenager and a child, but allowed them to sit in on her explanation. "I apologize for not saying much over the phone, Mouri-san, but I needed you to get here quickly. I want this incident resolved today. My husband owns the hotel, and having a murder on the premises is bad for publicity. I will not let this be made into a media spectacle – that's why I called someone from out-of-town to help the police detectives."

"So what actually happened?" Heiji jumped in impatiently. Skirting around the issue wasn't gonna solve it any faster.

Yamazaki-san glowered at him for the interruption but answered anyway. "One of the housekeepers discovered the body of Kimura Noboru in his guest room. He was –"

"Can we see it?"

"The police are currently working at the scene. I highly doubt they'd allow _children_ free reign," she said frostily, indicating both Conan and Heiji. Heiji didn't contradict her, but since the officers were likely his father's men, he thought differently. Conan shared a wry grin with him as they hurried off to the room with Kogoro.

Heiji took in the crime scene, mentally editing out the officers and police tape to picture what the room would have looked like when it was first discovered. The room was on the first floor, so windows were shut and locked tightly. Two half-unpacked suitcases rested on the closest bed, undoubtedly belonging to the victim and his wife. Other small bags surrounded them: there was one for makeup, a backpack for sightseeing in the city, and a small purse. A man's wallet rested on the night table, along with keys and a mobile phone. Not a robbery, then. The room had a door connecting to the room on the left, also locked. Everything was very neat.

Of course, his pocket-sized counterpart was already crawling all over the body (metaphorically speaking) when Heiji finally settled his gaze on the corpse. The man – late twenties, Heiji guessed – was lying face-up on the bed on top of the covers, wearing a casual shirt and slacks. His eyes were closed, his hands resting at his sides. The only things that suggested he wasn't simply asleep were the blood that covered his shirt and the Western-style steak knife sticking out of his chest.

"What's the time of death?" Heiji asked a passing officer whom he recognized.

"Oh, Hattori-kun, I didn't know you were coming. He's been dead for two to three hours, so 10:30, give or take. The maid discovered him around noon. Wife was out shopping."

"Thanks."

"He didn't struggle," Conan murmured to Heiji. "He was probably already asleep or knocked out when he was stabbed. It's too clean to be otherwise."

"I'm going with drugged," Heiji agreed. "Who else takes a nap at 10:30? It's unlikely that he was up for long enough to exhaust himself, 'specially since he isn't in exercise clothes."

"Don't say that for sure yet, Hattori. A late night might have prompted him to return to bed after the hotel's breakfast."

"Right, didn't think of that." He found the officer in charge. "Otaki-han, you should gather everyone who had keys to the room," Heiji suggested. "First-floor windows don't open all the way and the adjourning door is locked, so it's probable that the killer got in through the front."

The officer rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Hattori-kun, we're not rookies. We questioned the staff and the victim's wife. Kimura Noboru-san actually worked here at Yamazaki Hotel 'til about a year ago and left on, well, less-than-ideal terms, so we held anyone close to him and those with motive and no solid alibi." He indicated three people standing off to the side. "Yamazaki Akira, the hotel owner, apparently discovered that Kimura had been embezzling company funds, but didn't have enough proof to take it to court. Morita Hitomi, one of the housekeeping staff, was Kimura's ex-girlfriend, and according to her coworkers it was a _nasty_ breakup. His wife Kimura Toshiko was seen arguing with him last night at dinner about finances."

Conan met Heiji's eyes. _Let's go talk to them._ "The ex-girlfriend first," the smaller detective muttered to Heiji as they approached. The woman had plastered a bored expression on her face, whereas Yamazaki Akira was openly angry and the victim's wife was crying.

"Excuse me, Morita-san, could you tell me where you were between 10 and 11am?"

"Who're you?" she said, crossing her arms defensively and peering down at Heiji. He had the sudden urge to yank that diamond stud out of her nose.

Luckily for the woman, Conan jumped in cheerfully, "We're Uncle Kogoro's assistants! He's very busy with the crime scene so Heiji-niichan and I talk to people sometimes. Right?" He turned around to the Osaka detective and made a face. Heiji nodded in reply and coughed to cover a laugh. _Kudo's probably sick of being Occhan's "assistant."_

"The detective, Mouri Kogoro? Fine. I've been in the kitchen since 7:30 this morning, since the dishwasher's been broken and three guys called in sick today. I left once at 9 to visit the ladies room and once at, I dunno, 10:45 to smoke out back. You can talk to all the staff in the kitchen if you don't believe me. I was washing dishes the rest of the time."

"Then she would have had access to steak knives _and_ had time during the smoking break," Conan said, lost in thought. Everyone's eyes snapped to the kid detective, and Heiji mentally groaned. _We need a signal for when he's being too adult for a seven-year-old. The code word could be "Rampo" or something._ (1)

"_So,_ how long were you dating Kimura-san?" Heiji asked so the suspects would all stop staring at Conan.

He got another wicked glare. "That's none of your business. After he kicked me out of our apartment, I didn't want to see him ever again. I certainly would've called in sick myself if I knew he was staying here."

"You're not upset that he's dead."

"Do I look upset to you? But that's not what you're actually asking, hotshot. I can do better than him; I didn't need to kill him. He was a liar and a cheat – I had no idea what he was up to with that embezzling scheme until he was gone, but I knew someday his shit was going to come back to him. Looks like his karma just kicked in." She flashed a malicious smile, then stalked over towards "one of the _real_ officers" to ask when she could leave.

Conan skipped over to Kimura Toshiko. "This lady's _really_ upset, Heiji-niichan." He turned to her. "My mama always says that talking helps. Why don't you tell us about what happened since you got here?"

Between sobs, the woman got out her story. "We've been travelling around Japan for our belated honeymoon – we got married two months ago but had to put it off because of work. It was crazy: we grew up in the same city and are– _were_ both in accounting, but we'd never heard of each other until a year ago. And then we met and immediately fell in love. I made the hotel arrangements, so I didn't know that he'd worked here before we met. Gods, everyone _hates_ him here. I had no idea it was _this_ branch of the Yamazaki chain!

"We got in yesterday at 5 and had dinner before going to bed early. This morning at 9:30, we had breakfast in the hotel's American restaurant. At about 10, I left to go shopping around town. I bought a few outfits and some souvenirs for my sisters, and I took a walk around the park. I can show you the packages and receipts if you need to check. When I got back –" and here she blew her nose, "– they said that Noboru had been found mur– mur– he was dead." Heiji was getting a weird feeling that she was overdoing the grief on purpose, but it would be easy enough to check the hotel security to see if she had actually been gone when her husband had been killed. The receipts would be good too, but the visit to the park couldn't be corroborated by anyone. She wasn't from Osaka, so who would recognize and remember her?

Conan tugged at Heiji's shirt. "Yamazaki-kaichou probably won't talk frankly while Kimura-san is here," he murmured once the Osakan leaned down. "I'll take her to get water while you question him." _Always two steps ahead,_ Heiji thought, miffed.

The hotel owner spoke before Heiji opened his mouth. "I was on the phone from 9:53 to 11:14 in Conference Room B – I checked because I know you're going to pull my cell phone records anyway. My wife said she walked by the room and heard me, and one of the janitors did too, so don't say I just had the phone connected while I killed that sneak in his room." Heiji filed that information away, but noted that it could have been a recording in the conference room while the real phone was connected elsewhere.

"I heard you'd been cheated by the victim. That true?"

"Yes. He was one of my accountants in our building's office and swindled me out of quite a bit of money. And before you ask, yes, I could have gotten a keycard to Kimura-san's room if I'd wanted it, but I didn't know he was here until this morning when he was found. The reservations were made by his wife, and Kimura is a common name."

"You have an answer for everything." _It's like he rehearsed it. Almost too perfect._

"If the _detective_ wants to speak to me, he can do so at any time. Please give Mouri-san my business card." Heiji was forced to accept the card, swallowing several angry retorts that would have gotten him kicked out of the building and off the case. The businessman walked briskly over towards a staff member and said something, pointing at the stairs, before taking a seat on one of the benches.

While Heiji was looking for a suitable wall to punch, Conan returned. After filling the tiny detective in about Yamazaki Akira's statement, Conan shared his new information. "Kimura-san confirmed that they had argued at dinner about how much to spend on medical insurance. She was concerned because her father had encountered problems paying for her mother's hospital bills some years back – oh, she was away at school on an academic scholarship, so tuition wasn't hurting them. Since she lost her mother, Kimura-san said she was unwilling to be underprepared again. She claimed they'd resolved the issue at dinner and had plans for this afternoon to rearrange their finances. Unfortunately, we only have her word on that."

"Great," Heiji sighed. They moved back to the room, avoiding the cackling Kogoro who was telling anyone that would listen how quickly he was going to solve the case.

Cue two pairs of rolling eyes.

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(1) "Rampo" is a reference to Edogawa Rampo, the mystery writer that Shinichi gets half of his alias from.

From Meri: Regarding the Osakan accent, I've read some fics where the accent is conveyed well, but there are some where it's hard to tell what Heiji and/or Kazuha are trying to say. Therefore, I'm going to keep the accent stuff to a minimum. Since by reading this fic you are probably familiar with DC, you don't need me to tell you that Heiji and Kazuha have accents.

Uh, I don't know if there's a real Yamazaki hotel chain, but if so, it's purely coincidence. I picked from a list of common Japanese family names. Ooh, on a related note, in case it isn't clear, family names are written/spoken first in Japanese, so I left them that way.

Also, Osaka's a little far from his usual stomping grounds, but the magic show the girls are going to see is being performed by Kuroba Kaito. Who knows? Maybe he'll make an appearance or have a heist lined up in time for two of his adorable detectives to join in the fun ;)


	2. The Second Room, Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own DC or MK. The main characters just make me so happy that I want to play with them. Enjoy!

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"What are you looking for, Hattori?" The pair was standing outside the window of Room 118, the Kimuras' guest room. Or, to be exact, Conan was on the ground and Heiji was standing on the sill, running his fingers over the top of the window frame.

"Some kind of contraption. I was thinking that we'd ruled out entry by window too quickly because a person couldn't fit through. But…"

"There could have been a clever way to kill him without setting foot in the room," Conan finished. "Good call."

"What, you hadn't already thought of that?" Heiji asked innocently.

"Shut up. I'll look down here."

"Perfect task for you, shorty."

"Oi!" Conan snapped on gloves and rooted through the bushes, muttering something about an old newspaper sheet and an ant colony, but no obvious tools. "Hattori," he called a few minutes later. "Got something."

Hattori looked down. During the other detective's search, he'd wandered until he was under the window of the next room over. "What're you doing over there, Kudo?"

Conan showed him about four feet of string with a small loop in one end. "I'm not sure how this fits into your killing device theory, but it is mildly suspicious."

"Hold onto it. We'll come back to this later. For now, let's check out the spot where Morita-san said she was smoking. Even if she didn't do it, she could've seen something."

"I'm surprised." Heiji frowned at the comment, and waited for Conan to continue. The tiny teen smiled perkily up at him. "You're just full of good ideas today, Hattori."

"Jerk."

"That was for the 'short' comment." The detectives found a quartet of employees smoking outside an inconspicuous door. Heiji watched Conan slip back into his child persona, tromping through the grass playfully and running a little bit ahead of the Osakan. _Kudo's good_, he privately acknowledged, though it was clearly something the pocket-sized teen had worked at for a while. It had only taken Hattori two cases to unmask the Eastern detective in his early days as Conan. If Heiji had met the miniature investigator when the latter was better at acting, he wondered how things would have turned out.

"I'm here with the detectives about the incident earlier today," he said to the group. "My name's Hattori Heiji." Then, seeing one worker look questioningly at Conan, gestured dismissively at the kid and added, "Sorry about the sidekick; he lives with Mouri-san. Were any of you out here at around 10:45 with Morita Hitomi?"

One man in the group raised a hand. "I was, and so was my buddy. Want me to grab him? His break's in a few minutes."

"We'd appreciate it," Conan replied, nodding seriously. _Of course, kid-mode only works when he remembers it,_ Heiji thought._ Pick grass or something, Kudo. Don't forget your cover._

To that end, Heiji bent down. "Conan-kun, let this niichan do the talking, okay?"

Unfortunately, it did not have the desired effect. Conan glowered. "Well, aren't you being cute today?"

Heiji couldn't help himself. "Not as adorable as you, little boy."

"Don't _call_ me that!"

"Then don't call me cute, idiot. Look in a mirror."

"I'm sick of being treated like –"

"Like a child? Heaven forbid," Heiji teased.

One of the hotel employees snickered, snapping them out of their diatribe. "They're like an old married couple," she murmured to her coworkers.

_What?!_ "No no no no! He's only– we're not–"

"HELL no," the seven-year-old detective answered succinctly, echoing Heiji's look of unadulterated horror.

"I was going to guess siblings," an older gentleman offered.

"Better," Conan allowed.

Thankfully, the man and his friend returned, and Heiji spoke before the smaller detective could open his mouth again. "Can both of you verify that Morita Hitomi was out here earlier today?" The employees nodded. "What time?" he asked to make sure.

The original man spoke up. "I left my spot at 10:40 and Morita-chan came out right after me, swearing like a sailor about all those dishes. Screwed up her nails real good, she said. She wasn't out here more'n ten minutes, though."

Heiji grumbled as he and Conan walked away from the group. "There goes that idea."

"It seems Morita-san had no opportunity to commit the crime. Yamazaki-kaichou still could have, though. That people heard him on the phone isn't really a solid alibi."

The Osakan shook his head. "Keycards register electronically in the locks. It would be recorded if a master key was used in the door right around the time of the murder. As the owner, he might know the risks that would present."

"Huh. Do you think he could find a way to get in without it registering? Get someone to disable it under the pretense of rebooting?"

"Too memorable. The techie doing that would speak up once a body was discovered."

"Or not, if he wanted to keep his job." Conan rubbed his chin. "Too bad it wasn't a manual lock. Then all he would need is a… oi, Hattori, we've been complete morons." He pulled out the evidence bag containing the bundle of string. "I'll bet no one's even _looked_ in the adjoining room since the door's locked from the victim's side."

Heiji recalled the type of lock on the joining door and made the connection. "Oldest trick in the book," he groaned. Loop the string over the bottom of the lock and pull it mostly tight, thread it under the door when you close it, and tug at an angle from the other side of the door. The lock flips, the string comes off. Get rid of the string and voila, instant locked room mystery. "Let's go bother the staff at registration and see who booked that room."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"'Bea Ezuka'?" Heiji exchanged a glance with Conan. "That's a pseudonym if I ever heard one."

"Mmm," the small investigator agreed. "It's in hiragana rather than kanji, which suggests that the characters can be rearranged. The registration was online, right?" He looked up at the befuddled staff member stuck answering the questions of a teenager and a kid. The part-timer nodded.

Heiji rapidly went through all possible combinations of the characters, and his eyes flicked to Conan. "Abe Kazue," they said together. It made sense and was the simplest answer, since it was just the characters in reverse (1).

"We should take a look at our suspect," Conan proposed.

Heiji turned to the staff member. "Think you could hook us up with the security tapes for that hallway?" The young man hemmed and hawed for a few minutes before leading them to the security booth.

"So he _can_ operate on his own," Conan muttered, staring at Kogoro's back. Heiji was also surprised to see the famous detective in the booth looking over the tapes. "I've knocked him out so many times that I forget he solved cases before I was Conan." There were a handful of police officers crowded around the screen too, obscuring the Eastern detective's line of sight, so Heiji sat Conan on his shoulders. He grinned at the murmured expletives coming from the mouth of an apparently seven-year-old boy.

The time stamp read 10:35am when a bulky figure in a long brown coat and large hat (which covered the face, of course) approached Room 116. The officers and Kogoro groaned in frustration. "Wrong room," Kogoro grumbled as the figure closed the door. "No one's even paused in front of 118." _But it's exactly what _we're_ looking for,_ Heiji thought. After borrowing the list of keycard entries for 116 and confirming the time, the two teen detectives left.

"Library?"

"Down the street. You want a computer?"

"Yes. I want to know if Abe Kazue exists."

"One way to find out," the Osakan replied.

Typing her name into a search bar led to a bunch of different women named Abe Kazue. One of Heiji's leads bought him to an online newspaper obituary. "Kudo? 'Abe Kazue leaves behind a loving husband, Yoshi, owner of a lucrative pharmaceutical company, and devoted daughters Sakura, Chika, and Toshiko.' Take a look at the picture."

"Bingo," Conan said, his glasses reflecting the image of a slightly younger Kimura Toshiko – no, _Abe_ Toshiko at that point – standing between two much older girls and an older couple in a family picture. "We haven't got her yet, but I'm sure we can find more evidence."

"She mentioned receipts from her shopping trip."

"Shall we go, then?"

The policewoman handling evidence didn't know Heiji but, after some convincing from the other officers, ultimately let the detective pair look at Toshiko's shopping receipts. "They're in order by time," she pointed out. "That's the way I got them – Kimura Toshiko said she did the bills for both herself and her husband – and I want them back that way. Are we clear?"

"Perfectly, ma'am." The detectives flopped down on a sofa in the hotel lounge and began to sort through the receipts. There was one for the hotel's Western restaurant that had an order of pancakes, an order of steak and eggs, and two coffees. Heiji's stomach growled – Kazuha had brought two lunches to eat during the magic show, but that was a bust now. One receipt from Osaka Chocolates for two small boxes of assorted candies and a bag of truffles, one for a scarf at a tourist clothing store, and one for four tops and a skirt at a different clothing store called Oshima's.

Heiji waved the breakfast receipt at Conan. "Wanna bet the wife ordered the steak and eggs? That's probably how she got the murder weapon."

"We'll ask their waiter if she was wearing gloves at breakfast. When we got to the scene I overheard one of the officers say there were no prints on the handle."

"It would be just as easy to wash it and put on gloves later, since she didn't give it back after her meal."

"Point. The other thing that bothers me is this one." The Eastern detective held up the second clothing receipt. "I'll back up to explain: Let's say she left the hotel at 10 – we can check tapes later for a more exact time. It would take some time to walk to the tourist shops and then buy chocolate at," he checked the receipt, "10:14. From there she went to another store where she bought a scarf… at _10:17_. You've been out clothes shopping with Kazuha, right? A woman doesn't just walk in, pick out the first thing she sees, buy it, and leave. There's browsing, comparing, trying on, waiting in line at the register, etc."

"What's bothering you about the next store, then?"

"She left there at 11:39. She walks through the entire park fifteen minutes later and waltzes back into the hotel at the same time the body is found just after noon. What was she doing for over an hour? As someone who moved through those other stores pretty quickly, she was in there for a long time."

"Kudo, right now this is all speculation. Maybe she just liked the clothes there."

"That's why we're going to time the walk to each of these stores and chat up the people working the registers. Her second mistake was to make the pseudonym personal, and her third was to rush through the shops in order to piece together an alibi."

"And her first?"

The razor-sharp grin appeared, the one that couldn't be mistaken for a child's. "That was killing her husband in the first place. She won't get off clean now – she's unlucky enough to have not one, but _two_ extremely competent detectives on her trail."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

(1) Sorry if that was confusing. Vowels can stand alone in Japanese, but consonants generally can't ("n" is the exception). The pseudonym in the story is made up of 5 characters: be+a and e+zu+ka. Reversed, it's a+be and ka+zu+e, or Abe Kazue, which could be a real name. The hiragana versus kanji thing is hard to summarize here, Google should be a good resource if you're interested.

From Meri: I have literally no idea if the keycards-have-an-electronic-signature thing is true. It just made sense in my head and fit here so it was included. I don't know how many of Heiji and Conan's cases I'm going to cover here. I have this one finished and an idea for the next one, but the semester's starting up, so we'll see how much time I have.


	3. The Second Room, Part 3

Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own DC or MK. And now, for the exciting conclusion of the case…

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Heiji noted their start and end time as the pair zeroed in on Kimura Toshiko's first stop, the chocolate boutique. Twelve minutes at a good pace. "You know," he began, "she'd need somewhere to change into the disguise she used to get into Room 116. The best place to do that would be somewhere private, like a restroom or a changing area."

"Hold that thought until we get to the clothing stores." Conan shifted his expression when the middle-aged lady at the register smiled at them. He waved beatifically.

"Ma'am, do you know if a woman named Kimura Toshiko was here this morning? She would have been here before 10:15 and probably in a hurry." He gave a physical description as well.

The woman brightened. "Yes, I remember. I asked if she had other plans, since she was ready so quickly, but she said her sisters would eat any kind of chocolate so it was easy to pick." The detectives asked similar questions in the store with the scarf, and were told that yes, Toshiko left rapidly after her purchase.

"She walked out as herself from here, not disguised." Heiji stared at the receipts, willing them to reveal something as the duo walked to their next stop. "It must have been while she was in Oshima's."

"Hattori? I don't think we were supposed to take the evidence with us."

"Says the kid who still has the materials from the killer's locked door trick. Pot, kettle. "

"Hmph. Which building's the store we're looking for?"

"That one just ahead that's got a bike chained to the tree in the front."

As soon as the young girl at the closest cashier's desk in Oshima's spotted Conan, Heiji knew she was trouble. That oh-isn't-he-an-_adorable _-kid look was unhidden. "How can I help you?" she asked when they approached the counter, eyeing Heiji with a mischievous grin. "Looking for something for your little brother?"

"We're actually here about a customer that should have come in this morning. Were you on duty?" She nodded. "The woman is in her late twenties, came in alone, might have had her hair pinned up, and might have been moving quickly. She bought four shirts and a skirt at 11:39am. Her credit card is under the name 'Kimura Toshiko'."

She leaned forward. "Will you give me your number if I tell you?"

"Heiji-niichan already has a girlfriend," Conan interrupted sunnily.

"_Ku–_ _Conan-kun,_ she's not my girlfriend!"

The Eastern detective pulled Heiji down to his level and instantly dropped the kiddie act. Quirking an eyebrow, he said, "I was attempting to head off a long-winded conversation that would distract us from the case, so I lied. Did I strike a nerve?"

Heiji opened his mouth to shout at the kid, but the clerk interrupted. "Yes, I remember the person you're talking about."

"You do?" _My description wasn't finished,_ he thought.

"My lunch was at 11:45, so she was one of the last people I checked out. She was… odd. When she came in, she picked out a blouse and walked over to me with a sizing question, but the first thing she asked was the time. I told her it was 10:25, and she smiled. She sorta tuned out when I was explaining that we didn't have the size she wanted, then took an armful of clothes and her enormous purse back to the changing rooms. I saw her again at 10:50, when she had another question about sizes."

"Then she was in the changing room for twenty-five minutes?"

The girl shrugged. "It's a big store. I had other customers to deal with. She could've wandered around more without me seeing her."

Conan pulled Heiji down to his height and whispered, "Kimura could only have brought the disguise in via her purse. However, when she changed out of it later, it would've had blood on it. Even if she wanted to throw it out somewhere once she was herself again, she couldn't risk putting the costume back in her purse and getting blood everywhere. And just carrying it would risk the store cameras seeing it."

"So once she was Kimura Toshiko again, she couldn't be associated with the clothes. She could have left them in the changing room. No one would know they were related to the crime, and more importantly, no one would know they were hers."

"Correct. She'd gain even more time if she used her little lock trick again – everyone would think the stall was occupied until an employee came to clean up." The two lapsed into silence, thinking. _How the hell are Kudo and I supposed to get into the _women's _changing room to investigate?_ Gods, he could see that conversation playing out a dozen different ways, all with the same horrific outcome: screeches, slaps, someone shouting "pervert" to the whole store. And then Kazuha would find out, because she _always_ found out, and then he'd have to deal with the whole thing again.

Louder, Conan said, "Heiji-niichan, let's go look at shoes while we're here. Mama said I need new ones." The Western detective was dragged away until they were out of the cashier's eyesight. "There's no way two guys are getting in there. We need a new plan."

"Kudo, we don't even know if it's _in_ there. Maybe we could ask a chick to go look in… huh. Hey, think that register girl would help?"

"Just makes sure she knows not to touch it."

The cashier's bright eyes showed success when she emerged from the dressing room a few minutes later. Conan's real smile broke through. "It's there, Hattori. This is the first solid evidence for Kimura's involvement. We have a receipt saying that she was here this morning and a disguise that showed up near the scene of the crime. I think now you should let your father's people know about our theory and let them come here to get it. We're not police officers; touching it could be considered tampering with evidence."

"I'm on it."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"I'm glad they took us seriously about the jacket, but _damn_ I don't know where we messed up with the timing." The two female officers that had shown up and listened to their full explanation pointed out that if Toshiko had been seen in the store at 10:25, then she couldn't have gotten to the hotel to kill her husband at 10:38 – Oshima's, being further from the hotel than the chocolate shop, would have been fifteen minutes minimum at a fast walk. The figure in the tape didn't look out of breath.

"I could make it there faster on my skateboard." Conan sighed. "Well, it's a temporary setback. There's nothing else for us to do here. Wanna head back to the hotel and see if the great Kogoro found anything helpful?"

Heiji laughed. "Sure." He checked his watch. "The magic show is probably over, so we can pick up Neechan and the idiot on our way."

"Perfect. Kimura-san supposedly went through the park. We can time it and see if we can poke more holes in her alibi." The park was busy, normal for a sunny Saturday afternoon in early June. Groups of kids ran around with Frisbees and soccer balls, dodging the cyclists when any toys crossed the main path.

"Is that them over there?" Heiji followed Conan's gaze to see Kazuha and Ran talking animatedly to a dark-haired teen who was smiling and laughing with them.

"Kudo, why does that kid look exactly like you – your real body, I mean? Do you have any siblings you haven't mentioned?"

"No, but the resemblance is uncanny," the spectacled detective said, eyes narrowing.

Kazuha spotted them and waved. "Heiji! Conan-kun!" When they got closer, she gushed, "The magic show was _amazing!_ You really missed out."

"Yeah," Ran agreed. Gesturing to the messy haired boy with them, she added, "He's in our year, but he's been doing magic since he was a kid. He's really good at it."

"Pleasure to meet you," the magician said, producing a white rose from nowhere and squatting down to Conan's height. To Heiji's amusement, the detective kid looked uncomfortable taking it. _I guess it is kinda weird for a straight guy to accept flowers from a dude that's mentally his age._

"What's this for?" Conan asked curiously.

"Does it have to be for something?"

He tilted his head, considering. "I suppose not, but I don't even know you."

"I just thought it would suit you. White roses are for purity and youth."

"Thank you, then. I'm afraid I don't have anything up my sleeves for you. I don't do magic."

A peculiar smile slipped onto the performer's face. "I have a feeling that you have a lot more hidden tricks than you let on, little one." Heiji fought a shiver. The magician wasn't wrong.

"You thoroughly creep me out."

That elicited a genuine laugh from the Shinichi look-alike. He ruffled the Eastern detective's hair before standing up. "Such a critic. I apologize if I bothered you."

"Hat– Heiji-niichan, let's go."

"We'll catch up with you," Ran said with a smile. "Kazuha and I offered to give him directions."

"Perhaps we will meet again," the magician said to the kid detective before zipping up his bag of props.

Waiting until they were some distance away, Conan muttered, "Not if _I_ have anything to say about it." Heiji chuckled. "C'mon, it wasn't just my imagination, right? He was strange. I don't think he even looked at you the entire time we were there."

"Maybe he likes little boys."

"Don't be gross. There were tons of kids at the park, and he didn't bother any of them." He huffed and was quiet for a moment. Then, he restarted their earlier conversation. "_How_ could Kimura have gotten from Oshima's to the hotel quickly and without drawing attention?"

"I dunno," Heiji sighed, stepping to the side of the trail as another bicycle whizzed recklessly by them. _Watch where you're going,_ he thought to the rider, irritated. _You might hit someone, moving that fast._

Oh. Duh.

"I got it," Heiji shouted, snapping his fingers. "The bike!"

Conan's expression cleared. "The one in front of the store. It was hers."

"It has to be!" Pulling out his phone, Heiji dialed the officers they'd left in Oshima's and excitedly conveyed his new idea. "Now let's go get a confession, Kudo."

The detective duo ran into the officer in charge of evidence, who was fuming. "You _left _with the receipts? That was _incredibly _thoughtless – what if you'd lost them? What if the court thought you tampered with the evidence? I ought to tell your father and get you off the case, boy."

Heiji held the papers out like a shield. "I have them right here, ma'am, and actually, they're about to prove that Kimura-san is a killer." Heiji and Conan raced to the lobby, where the three suspects were now seated in lounge chairs and watched by two officers.

"Hey," Conan said artlessly, tugging on Kimura Toshiko's sleeve. "What did you have for breakfast today? I had toast. Did you have toast? Mama says I talk too much so I should ask other people about their day. What's your mom's name?"

The woman smiled. "I had a Western breakfast. Steak and eggs." Then her breath hitched. "It was my last meal with my husband." After a moment, she added, "My mother's name was Abe Kazue."

"Wow, Heiji-niichan! The person who stayed in the room next to Kimura-san had the same characters in their name as her mom! They were just written in the opposite order."

Heiji watched Kimura's expression change as she realized that the information Conan was spilling could throw light on her association with the second room. "What a funny coincidence, little boy." She patted him on the head, feigning a smile.

"The 'little boy' found something odd outside the window," Heiji stated. "A string with a loop in the end of it. It's possible the murderer exited through the adjoining door and locked the door with it before disposing of the string out the window. A murderer who knew the name Abe Kazue."

"Surely you're not suggesting –"

"I am."

"That's ridiculous. I was out shopping the whole time. I have receipts to prove it. And why would I kill my husband?"

Conan jumped in, eyes wide and innocent. "I bet it has something to do with your mom. She was in the hospital for a long time. You told me that your daddy had trouble paying the hospital bills, but I read in the newspaper that your dad's business was really successful. Did someone rob you?" He waited a moment before adding, just as harmlessly, "It's funny that you didn't know Kimura Noboru-san even though you lived in the same suburbs. Maybe he was staying away from your daddy for some reason."

Heiji took a turn. "Your husband was known to be an embezzler. It could be that you decided to kill him when you learned that he'd done it to your own family one year while you were away at college."

"I didn't kill my husband! Why are you attacking my reputation? The people working _here_ have a better reason to kill him than I do. Of course Noboru didn't hurt my father's company."

Heiji continued, "You claimed not to know which branch of Yamazaki your husband worked at. But if you had access to his old receipts because you did bills for the both of you, then you would know where he had been during the time he'd worked at the hotel."

"You're forgetting something, kid. _I have an alibi_. There is physical proof that I was not here when my husband was stabbed."

"That's true; you did give us several receipts. You went to Oshima's today, right? That's where you bought most of the clothes."

"Yes," she agreed easily.

"Did you see the red bike out front?"

Her smile froze. "I don't recall… ah, yes, now that I think about it, I do believe I did."

"You know it was locked to the tree, right?" She nodded. "The digits on those locks are always so small. It's a pain to turn them while wearing gloves." She caught the insinuation, and her mask dropped, revealing a horrified expression. "I wonder whose fingerprints we'll find on the lock. There were also a jacket and hat found in Oshima's changing room with blood on them. The same clothes were seen on a suspicious figure entering Room 116 minutes before the crime. And there _was_ a huge gap between the times you were seen in Oshima's, right around the time of death."

Heiji gave her props for recovering quickly. "Oh yeah, kid?" She sat back, smug. "That's a clever story, but how would I know that Noboru would be asleep in our room at the time I came back?" _Crap_.

"There was a bottle of sleeping pills in your makeup bag," Kogoro stated. The underage detectives both swung their heads around. _When did he get here?_ "Spiking his coffee wouldn't be too hard."

"As soon as the police can get the security tapes from Oshima's," Heiji finished, "we can see whether or not the figure in the brown jacket was recorded going _into _the store before it went _out_."

"Shut up!" Kimura Toshiko shouted, snapping. "You're all taking his side. You_ shouldn't_ be. He _deserved_ what was coming to him! _He's_ the reason my mother couldn't get the new treatments. She died because of a no-good thief. When I found out what Noboru had done – that he'd worked for my father and did the same thing in other places, that low-life – I knew he couldn't be allowed to do that to anyone ever again. I did the world a favor!"

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

_"… And the forecast for tomorrow is cloudy during the day, but it should clear up by early evening…"_

"Heiji-niichan, are you having _another_ bowl?"

He smirked smugly. "When you grow up to be as big as me, Conan-kun, you need to eat more." The Osakan could tell Conan was weighing the satisfaction of flipping him off against the chance that Ran or someone else in the restaurant would catch him doing it.

_"…highlight is going to be the Kid heist in Osaka." _Conan snapped his head around to face the restaurant's TV. _"Kid sent his note on Wednesday informing the police of his intent to steal the Mizuki Diamond, on display at the National Museum of Art…"_

"I've never been to a Kid heist," Heiji commented. "I hear you're quite the pro at keeping him from the target, Ku– Conan-kun."

"Conan's always in the right place," Ran said animatedly.

Kazuha raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean?" Ran began to outline the previous heists where they'd been present.

Heiji lowered his voice. "So, Kudo, are you coming?"

"No. Occhan's got Mahjong tomorrow night and Ran's doing a school project with Sonoko. Ran would never let me ride the train to Osaka by myself."

"Hey, Neechan." Ran looked over. "Conan-kun and I didn't really get to catch up today; would you mind if he hangs out with me 'til tomorrow night?"

Ran nodded, thoughtful. "Don't let him stay up too late, though, Hattori-kun. He has school on Monday."

"No problem." Heiji turned back to Conan when the girls' attention was distracted again. "Ha. No thief stands a chance against the detectives of East _and_ West. This is gonna be a blast."

xxxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

From Meri: Again, I just made up Oshima's, so if there's a real one, it's coincidence. There _is_ a National Museum of Art in Osaka, but I'm just borrowing the name.

If you found any gaping plot holes or blatant grammatical errors, let me know! I'm that person who compulsively edits everything because grammar and spelling are very important to me.

Also, I originally planned Kaito's appearance to be just a cameo, but he wanted to say more than I expected, and now he's got a heist in Osaka lined up. How will the Kaitou Kid fair against Heiji and Conan? Hakuba will be making an appearance too, of course!


	4. The Mizuki Diamond Heist, Part 1

Disclaimer: If I owned DC or MK, I'd have run out of ways to kill people/steal stuff. Just a reminder that I'm not currently shipping people, but that doesn't mean I won't write in funny scenes that _could_ be construed as suggestive to mess with y'all and to satisfy my sense of humor X) Also, my posts aren't going to be this quick once school gets really rolling.

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"C'mon, Kudo, you know you want it."

"I'm not in the mood."

"But it'll be good, I promise!"

Conan rolled his eyes. "That's not the issue here. Just save it for later."

"It won't be hot then. You have to take it _now._"

"Shut_ up_, Hattori, I don't want the damn popcorn." Conan swiped the remote from a distracted Heiji and pressed play. "And do I want to know why you have pajamas that fit a seven-year old?"

"I happen to have little cousins that visit from Fukushima," Heiji defended. "Who's being gross now, idiot?" The shorter detective rolled his eyes again and focused on the TV screen. There was silence as the movie commenced. Fifteen minutes in, Heiji sighed.

"Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Me too. Throw in the next one, then. No one knows how to write a good mystery film anymore. It's pathetically obvious who the killer is."

Heiji picked up a stack of DVD cases. "I rented three more recent ones and two old Holmes adaptions. I own most of the Ellery Queen movies, so those are an option too."

"Eh, you've seen all the Queen ones and I've seen all of Holmes. Let's try another contemporary one. Did you snag the blueprints from your dad for the National Museum of Art?"

Heiji was offended at the notion that he's stolen the documents. "Don't say it like that, Kudo. Dad said I could look over them once he was done. He was happy that I was interested in a theft rather than murder for once, 'specially since Kid's rule is that no one gets hurt." He produced the papers.

"Perfect. I'll roll them out and we can look for ways that Kaitou Kid might escape once he has the gem." Conan's eyes glittered with excitement. "Kid has promised to pass through solid glass this time, and despite the police's repeated assurances that he can't follow through, he _will_ find a way to steal it."

The Osakan had rarely seen the other detective so enthusiastic outside of murder cases. _What's so special about this thief? _"So what's Kid like? You've talked to him, right?"

"Kid is one-of-a-kind. He's brilliant and can quickly adapt to a given situation. His skills in speed and slight-of-hand as a magician transfer over effectively to his life of crime. But he's not perfect." Conan looked up from the plans and stared Heiji in the eye, serious. "Everyone sees him as a legendary figure, and he uses that to his advantage. He's just as human as you or I. Don't be overwhelmed by his illusions."

"Oi, Kudo, you make me sound like a novice."

"You'll see tomorrow," Conan said with a playful grin. "I've encountered him a dozen times and still haven't caught him. Nakamori-keibu has been chasing Kid for _years._ That thief is the luckiest bastard I've ever met."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

The museum was swamped by 7pm, even though the thief wasn't scheduled to arrive until 9. Heiji sighed and looked around the large hall where the Mizuki diamond was being displayed. Photographers and other media representatives littered the gallery, cameras trained on the raised glass case in the center of the room. Police officers guarded exits and the man Conan pointed out as Nakamori-keibu stormed around shouting orders and pinching everyone's cheeks. It frickin' _hurt_. There was a group of fangirls up near the case wearing t-shirts that said things like "Kid-sama is the best" and "You've stolen my heart." It was almost embarrassing to be in the same room with them. One girl had already thrown herself at the case and cried that Kid would have to take her too. She'd kicked and screamed the whole time she was being escorted out. _I bet they'd _let_ Kid disguise himself as one of them._ "Like putty in his hands," Heiji said out loud.

"I know," Conan replied. "Kid knows how to work a crowd."

"Maybe that's why he doesn't wait until one or two in the morning to steal his targets, even though it's be less of a hassle. Fewer people would come."

"That's possible. I happen to think it's because Kid has to get up for school on Mondays too."

"Kudo, 'Kid' is just a nickname. He's been pilfering for eighteen years."

With no doubt in his eyes, Conan disclosed, "The Kid I know is around our age. He's likely the apprentice of the one who stopped eight years ago."

"My thoughts exactly," a voice to Heiji's left interjected, causing the Western detective to jump. Hakuba Saguru was smiling indulgently down at the pocket-sized detective. "You're perceptive as always, Conan-kun."

"Hakuba-niichan! I thought you were in England."

"Yeah, I thought you were in England," Heiji echoed, much less enthused to see the half-British detective. _Why didn't you stay there?_

"I just returned. This is my first Kid heist in a while, so I hope to have surprise on my side. Kid doesn't know I'm back yet."

"How do you know?" Heiji asked sourly. "No one knows who he is. An' I've heard that Ku– Conan-kun's come closer to catching him than you, Hakuba-san."

"Yes, Conan-kun does have the advantage of being underestimated," the light-haired detective admitted, "but by now Kaitou Kid knows better than to judge him by his small stature. We'll see who catches the thief in the end, though."

Conan let out a genuine laugh. "I take that as a challenge, Hakuba-niichan."

"I had no doubt you would, Conan-kun." He checked his pocket watch. "Please excuse me; there's only one hour and forty-nine minutes until Kid is scheduled to appear, and I have preparations to make. We already have the elevators frozen and all the doors to the upper level stairs locked, but we still need to search the premises for his little… _presents_. I'd rather not have my hair dyed blue again." He nodded at the pair and strode off.

"That guy's so full of himself," Heiji huffed. "'I'll have surprise on my side'; 'we'll see who catches him in the end'. He's failed at this just as much as anyone else."

"Hattori." Conan met his gaze. "Be very careful what you call me around Hakuba. He won't miss your little slips, and he isn't fooled by my child act. I don't need more people put in danger because they know too much."

"Sure thing, Kudo."

"Actually, don't say my name here at all. I don't want Kid to find out who I am either, though for different reasons, of course." They lapsed into silence as they waited, watching the crowd for suspicious figures. All around them there was excited chatter, constant movement, anticipation…

And Heiji was bored out of his mind. Standing around idly was not something he was accustomed to – he tended to take a more active approach in his cases. _I'll feel better when Kid starts to run,_ he recognized. As a detective who usually worked homicide cases, he was accustomed to reacting to an already-committed crime rather than taking preemptive steps. _That's why I don't play chess._

"You'll get used to it," Conan said, glancing back at the crowd. He'd clearly seen Heiji's total lack of interest. "When 9 o'clock comes around, things will start to liven up. Trust me; the chase is worth the wait."

He snorted. "I hope so."

"Now, who was it that wanted to come in the first place?" Conan asked innocently, tapping his chin with a frown.

"Next time I'm not showing up until thirty minutes before," Heiji grumbled.

"Kid's here already," Conan reminded him casually. "He's always around for a while before the appointed time, cavorting around disguised as someone else. If we are _very_ lucky, we can catch him acting out of character."

"Then shouldn't we all be pinching people? I volunteer to punch– I mean _pinch_ Hakuba-san." The Eastern detective chuckled in reply.

Their attention was drawn by a stout figure in front of the case, protesting loudly as two officers tried to keep him back. "I am the curator of this museum, and I am required to inspect the display! You can call the museum director if you want. Look! I've already been pinched and prodded by your inspector, Nakamori. You can watch me the whole time to make sure I don't abscond with the diamond, but you must let me through." The policemen released him, and he ascended to the platform with a wheezing breath, clearly winded from the argument. He bent down and examined the gem through the glass, then ran his hands around the outside of the case near the top. "Well, thankfully everything seems to be in order," he told the officers, stepping down and striding off towards an older gentleman on the museum's staff and giving him instructions.

At 8:50, the famous heiress Tsukino Yui and her husband Rokurou – the owners of the diamond – arrived at the scene. In a flowing periwinkle dress and black tuxedo, respectively, the pair glided towards the case, showing no signs of hesitation despite the clamoring crowd. The couple posed in front of the case, waving at the cameras and smiling radiantly. A bold reporter held out his microphone and shouted, "Ma'am, what do you think of Kid's claim in the notice that he can reach through solid glass to remove the diamond?"

"Utter balderdash. You can quote me on that."

Another journalist spoke up. "Tsukino-san, do you have a message for the Kaitou Kid?"

"We have been assured that my grandmother's jewel is quite safe, with dozens of police helicopters surrounding the museum and many dedicated officers in the building. However, if Kid does happen to acquire it, he should know that we will contribute generously toward the efforts for getting it back. The gem holds sentimental value for my family," Yui asserted firmly, laying her hand delicately against the glass.

"That's three people who've touched the gem's case," Conan murmured to Heiji. "The rabid fan, the curator, and Tsukino-san. Keep an eye on them. It's possible Kid hasn't made his move yet, but unlikely. However, we can hardly walk up to Tsukino-san and pinch her."

"Guess again," Heiji said a moment later, nodding at Saguru, who had walked up to the couple and whispered something to them. Yui looked indignant but her husband nodded, gently leading his wife off the platform and over to the side of the hall.

The buzzing of the audience grew louder as the clock ticked towards 9. Heiji was going to snap if something didn't happen soon. As if answering his wishes, there was a shout. "Look!" a woman cried from near the entrance. "Kid's hat!" All eyes turned as the white top hat struck the ground, falling to one side and rolling. The officers left the platform, ready to converge on the spot. Heiji's head turned automatically, even as he realized, _That's the split-second distraction he needs for an entrance_. He whipped his head around towards the platform to where he was sure the thief would be. Conan was five steps ahead of him, but both detectives were still too late.

Kid, in an identical top hat, was kneeling on top of the gem's case, his arm passing through the glass top to take hold of the diamond.

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

From Meri: Don't worry, that wasn't the extent of Hakuba's involvement! I understand why he doesn't make a ton of appearances (having three super-smart detectives is kinda overkill for most cases) but I'd like to see more of him! He's a detective who genuinely respects and acknowledges Conan's investigative talents without knowing that the little guy is actually Shinichi.

Also, I'm following the manga canon, where it isn't clear whether Kaitou Kid knows Conan's true identity. I've read the whole manga (and most of it twice) but I haven't seen all the movies and anime yet.


	5. The Mizuki Diamond Heist, Part 2

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own DC or MK. For those of you who are starting a new semester too, lots of luck!

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

Everything happened in an instant. All of the fans realized Kid was here and turned back to the centerpiece of tonight's spectacle, gasping as they spotted their thief decked in white reaching into the case. Kid pulled the diamond out through the glass, amazing his stupefied spectators. Someone by Heiji fainted as the detective struggled to get to the middle of the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending tonight's show." Kaitou Kid bowed theatrically, grinning as he watched the police and detectives converging on him. "You are witnesses to this latest demonstration which shows that, with the right magic, there is no such thing as impossible. I have hitherto walked on thin air and moved between spaces in an instant. Tonight I have passed through solid glass and back again." He paused, soaking up the attention. "Unfortunately, this luminous spell has to be broken quite a while before midnight." Heiji barely saw the card gun before it fired at the wall. The magician's aim was true, and the room was plunged into darkness.

Ignoring the shrieks of excitement and terror, Heiji broke through the last of the crowd and caught up to Conan, whose watch-flashlight was illuminating their path. After a moment that felt like eternity, someone finally found the light switch and the room was visible again.

The case was empty, and the thief was gone.

"He must have cut the glass," the inspector said, reaching the platform. "There's no other way."

"The glass is intact," Saguru contradicted, running his fingers over the smooth top. "Not a scratch on it."

"It doesn't look like he tried to melt his way through either," Heiji added.

"Nobody leaves this room!" Nakamori shouted to his men.

Conan shook his head, obviously amused. "Look at this. Kid can create utter chaos at literally the drop of a hat." Without asking, Heiji lifted the small detective up so he too could examine the glass. "Thanks, Hattori." He felt around the edges of the glass, pushing against experimentally.

"Do that again," Hakuba immediately spoke up. "I thought it… moved." Conan repeated the action, and Hakuba gripped two opposite sides right at the top and pulled. The whole top shifted and came off the four sides of the rectangular case.

Heiji frowned. "So he cut the glass, but why? There was definitely a pane of glass there when he reached in. I saw it." It was a puzzle, and puzzles were what these three teens did best. Heiji felt excitement kicking in. _Now the game's started._

"We'll figure it out after. Right now let's focus on getting him in handcuffs. Put me down, please." Heiji did. "Kid usually tries to get out somewhere high. If the elevator and stairs are unavailable, he'll head for the ventilation shafts, probably in the restrooms. We should split up."

"Wait, Conan –" Heiji was talking to air.

"It's a fair plan," Hakuba conceded, "but you and I are too tall for crawling through ventilation shafts. I'll call the taskforce and get them to unlock one of the elevators. Trust Kid to have found a way to the rooftop anyway."

"Heiji?" The Osakan snapped around at the sound of a familiar voice. _Kazuha_ of all people came rushing up to him, looking concerned. "Heiji! Are you alright? I saw you heading up here, and then I heard the gun…" She took a breath. "I was worried. Where's Conan-kun? Ran-chan called me to make sure he was okay. You know how he likes to play detective, and she's so far away that if anything happened, well, she'd feel horrible."

"He's fine," Heiji quickly reassured her, mentally adding "_probably_." "Conan-kun can take care of himself and Kid's s'posed to be a pacifist." _Kudo's seventeen and can deal with any tricks that Kaitou Kid would dish out._ "Go outside and wait. We'll find you or call you when we're done." Without waiting for a reply (though he heard a cry of "Idiot!" from behind him), Heiji raced to catch up to Saguru, who screeched to a stop in the middle of the hallway for no clear reason.

The Osakan ran into him. "What're you waiting for?" His adrenaline was pumping.

Saguru held out an arm to keep him from passing. "Kaitou Kid adores setting traps. I've learned to hesitate when I get a bad feeling on heists." He pointed upward. "See what I mean?" There was a series of square ceiling tiles that were removed, shaped in the Kid caricature.

"Is there any way to avoid whatever this is?"

"Usually, but it's always time consuming. He also likes to have trip wires pop up once you think you're through."

"Is it a riddle?" Heiji looked at the objects scattered throughout the hallway underneath the danger zone. Two benches across from each other, a gigantic potted plant, and a water fountain. Heiji thought about what he had with him: evidence bags, his wallet and lucky charm, bandaids, and a museum pamphlet. _Nothing helpful there… We don't know if the missing tiles are the safe ones to walk under, or the dangerous ones, or if that matters at all._ "Maybe if we run fast enough…"

"You think the officers chasing Kid would be walking? His timing is tight." Saguru took out his own pamphlet, crumpled it, and tossed it ahead of them. As it hit the tile, pink sleeping gas spritzed from the ceiling, soaking a small section of the floor.

"Okay, so we can't touch the floor. What about we climb across the bench and pot? He wouldn't have rigged sleeping gas on those tiles."

"Climb across… that would be undignified. And completely in line with Kid's sense of humor." Heiji, the more athletic of the two, had it easier jumping from the giant pot to the bench, but when Saguru started to slip, he caught the other detective's hand and pulled them to safety. They were careful to step only on the single tile below the water fountain, Saguru toeing the line before hopping to the edge of the sleeping gas zone. Heiji was embarrassed to realize that the problem had been _fun,_ like the games he'd played as a kid with Kazuha where the floor was lava or shark-infested waters.

Saguru spoke into a handheld radio in front of the elevators and the Western detective suddenly had an uncharacteristic feeling of respect for the teen for recognizing the trap before it was sprung. Then he had another thought. Heiji pinched the Holmes aficionado and was rewarded with a glare. That settled it, then; Saguru had definitely not been replaced by Kid. _Wait. Replacements…_

_Got it._

"He switched the glass," Heiji announced as the elevator door opened with a ding. The two teens stepped in and Saguru pressed the R button. Heiji quickly tapped the 5 button below it. "Sometime earlier tonight, he cut the original top, separatin' it from the rest of the case but leaving it in place. Then, when everyone was distracted with the hat, he switched it with a precut piece of the same size, which had a hole big enough for his arm. We all looked back, and it seemed like he was reaching through the unbroken piece. He cut the lights and replaced the original piece during the disturbance."

Saguru's eyes brightened in understanding. "Ah, that's why he couldn't use his typical smoke – it would have gotten trapped in the case while he switched them and we would have known he somehow opened it."

"I thought these magic tricks were supposed to be complicated."

"You're right, that _was_ simple," the half-British detective mused. "Kid's been slacking in my absence. He was probably dressed as the curator. I saw that the man had his hands all over the display case." The elevator came to a stop and the light for 5 turned off, and out of nowhere the ceiling opened up and confetti fell like snow, followed by a bright splash of color that soaked their heads and shoulders.

Frustrated, Saguru smacked the wall with his fists. "Why the hell is it _always_ blue? I will cuff you, you insufferable imp, and visit you in prison to dye _your_ hair blue! Once a month. FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!" As if to complete the humiliation, two poles were lowered into the elevator in front of the doors, one with a heavily starched Japanese flag and the other with a similar British flag. There was a note strung between them that read:

"Welcome back, Tantei-san! You were missed! I figured you'd still be suffering from jet lag so I made this an easy one, heehee. Go home and get some sleep. Cheerfully, Kaitou Kid."

_l~~l_  
\(Q_o)

"I think he knows you're back in the country," Heiji said unnecessarily. "Is Kid always like this?" _What a weird dude. Is he _worried_ about his trackers? Does he even take them seriously?_

"Unfortunately, yes, he's _always_ like this. Such a child. I can't even _imagine_ how much of a horror he'll be someday when his sense of humor evolves to include more risqué pranks." He got a look of alarm on his face, then pinched Heiji's cheeks and relaxed. "Phew. He doesn't need anyone to give him more ideas."

Belatedly, the doors opened and Heiji stepped out. "Hope there's nothin' else in the ceiling. Have fun on the roof." The door slid shut, cutting off Saguru's response. Heiji turned to face the museum's office floor, blood pumping wildly. _If I had people chasing me who expected me to be on the roof, I'd be a fool to go there. But if I needed someplace high to take off from, this is where I'd do it; right under their noses. No one should be here but there's lots to hide behind in case someone shows up._ Plus, the security on office windows wasn't exactly high-tech. From his and Conan's research, no door opened without a security badge, so breaking in through a window on this level was, in addition to difficult, kinda pointless.

He quickly looked in every cubicle he passed and under desks and behind any fake tree thicker than his hand. While jogging down a hallway of locked doors, he found one that was ajar. Heiji tensed, moving slowly to peek in. It was a conference room, with tall bookshelves in the corner and windows covering almost an entire wall. There was a figure by the long table checking some electronic device outlined by the moonlight coming in. The ponytail bounced as she checked her pockets for something.

"Kazuha, what're you doin' up here?" It was safe to walk in, then.

The figure looked up, surprised. "Oh, nothing, Heiji," she said with a chuckle.

"I'm being serious. Kid could be up here."

A funny grin crossed her face. "Is that so? What, are you going to protect me from the big, bad thief?" Her eyelashes fluttered.

"Kazuha, you could take out Kid in three seconds flat. What's wrong with you tonight?"

"You're the detective." She circled around to stand in front of him, positioning him between her and the table. "What do you think, Heiji? I'm up here alone, waiting for my attractive best friend to come find me." Heiji backed up as she advanced until he was all but sitting on the table. There was something feral in her eyes. "Haven't you seen the way I look at you, Heiji?" she whispered into his ear, eliciting an involuntary shiver. "Haven't you ever thought about it?"

Heiji suddenly seized her wrists. "You're Kaitou Kid." Everything made sense if that were true, including her unusual worry for him downstairs. Internally, he relaxed. This Kazuha had been… a different kind of scary. He wasn't sure he liked it.

"Took you long enough," he purred in his Kid voice, stepping back. "Tantei-kun was much quicker when I dressed as his girl." He seemed unconcerned that the detective of the West had his hands captured. "I thought I might have to do something drastic to keep you distracted." Heiji's jaw dropped, horrified.

Before the detective knew what was going on, Kid was across the room near the windows, card gun drawn and aimed at Heiji. "You should be more observant," the thief said in an eerily accurate impression of Conan's voice. "Put the pieces together faster next time, Tantei-han, or you'll be no fun. There is only one truth." There was a small hiss and Kid stepped back, nonchalant, as a familiar dart buried itself in the wall. "Thought that might draw you out, Tantei-kun." There was some cursing from the top of the bookshelves. "Such language from a child!"

"I knew you'd come up here," Conan said from the dark corner. He started to climb down the shelves.

"Too bad you only have a single dart loaded at a time." Kaitou Kid casually retrieved his tools from the table, checking one device with a smile. Stepping towards the window, card gun still aimed, he held the diamond up to the moonlight, peering through it carefully. There was a series of loud bangs from somewhere outside. "Oh dear," Kid said. "Regretfully, it looks like we're out of time for tonight." He tossed the diamond to Conan.

"The helicopters will see you," Heiji said with a smirk.

"No, Tantei-han, they will see the fireworks I set off on the other side of the building, each progressively farther from the museum. Nakamori-keibu will have them all surround the place where they think I am, leaving me with an open sky. Good night!" Kid flicked open the window and leapt out. There was a snap and Heiji saw a large white triangle gliding off.

"And, that," Conan said with finality, "was Kaitou Kid."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

Heiji was walking Conan to the train station when a thought occurred to him. "Hey, Kudo, why didn't you take him out before I got there, when he was messin' around at the table?"

"I'd only just climbed out of the vent, and his hand was on the card gun the whole time. I was going to take the shot when he was seducing you, but he put you right between us."

"He was not _seducing_ me, idiot! He was just terrible at staying in Kazuha's character."

"And you think _I'm_ in denial. You totally freaked out when 'she' cornered you."

"Did not."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, you're not the only one he puts off balance. When he disguised as Ran during the Black Star heist, he was wearing her dress – a copy of it, I found out later. At the time I thought, ah, that it was more important to find her before anyone else did rather that catch him. Kid got away." There was a lull as they reached the station. "Are you coming to the next heist, Hattori?"

"I think I'll stick to murderers."

"So you say now. Wait until he delivers a notice to your house. And besides, once it got started, you had fun."

"I'm not even going to _consider_ it until I've gotten the blue out of my hair."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxxx

From Meri: Hope you liked my Kaitou Kid doodle; I wasn't sure how else to convey it in writing. I thought it was cute.

Alright, this is the end of the Mizuki diamond case (obviously), and though I'm in the mood to write more Hattori-Kudo files, I don't have any cases outlined yet. With luck, I'll have the time and inspiration soon!


	6. Sharkbait, Part 1

Disclaimer: No, I do not own DC or MK. So I had a different case for you guys about 80% done when I realized that all my evidence for the killer was purely circumstantial and the other suspects were looking guiltier than the actual killer. Uh, oops? After this I'm thinking of going back and reworking it. Having a real audience is good for my productivity because it forces me to sit down and WRITE even if I don't think I have any ideas. On another note, during this story when people have the same family name, I will frequently use first names with honorifics in speech to avoid confusion. Happy reading!

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

The two detectives were standing silently in the ticket line for the aquarium when Conan suddenly said, "Doesn't Kazuha-chan think it's weird that you want to hang out with a seven-year-old?" She and Ran had made a beeline for the mall district as soon as the Osakan pair had arrived in Beika, forcing the boys to pretend that they'd had previous plans. The girls had smiled evilly and promised to meet up with them when the shopping spree was done… whenever that was.

"Aw, c'mon Kudo, you're my best friend! Of course I wanna hang out with you."

"But she doesn't know that. Also, what does that make Kazuha-chan?"

"You're my best _guy_ friend," Heiji corrected.

Conan grinned wickedly. "Nice phrasing, Hattori. I thought you were going to say that she was your best _girl_ friend. But then I might get the wrong idea, hmm?"

"Shut up. She's not my girlfriend."

Conan dropped it, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "I haven't really had many other friends. Just Ran and a few acquaintances on the soccer team. The Detective Boys are friendly to me as Conan, but…"

"But they're mentally seven. I get it. You need someone on your intellectual level. Someone like me!"

Conan smirked. "You're closer than most, but 'on my level'? You still have a long way to go, 'Kudo of the West'," he teased.

Heiji growled, but kept his voice down so other people wouldn't hear him. "If you weren't a twerp right now I'd whack you into next week. I'm goin' to start keeping a tally of how many punches I owe you when you're full-size again."

"Well, it's not my fault my best friend's too hotheaded for his own good." Heiji opened his mouth to shout a retort and then stopped. Conan had just acknowledged him as his best friend – excluding Ran, of course, the way Heiji had excluded Kazuha – and though Heiji fought to hang onto his anger, he ended up grinning instead. "Heh. You look like an idiot when you smile like that, Hattori."

"Quiet, brat." They bought their tickets and Heiji caught Conan wrinkling his nose when the overly cheerful employee handed him fish stickers and a map.

"I'm surprised you suggested the aquarium," Conan began, stuffing the map and stickers in his pocket. "Have you been here before?"

"Nah, but Kazuha was talking it up the last time we were in Beika. I thought if I said we were going here, she and Neechan might skip the shopping trip to see it."

"Good try. What did she say was so special about it?"

"Eh, I wasn't really listenin'. She said a lot. There were fish from all over the world, there was a kids' area where you could pet sting rays and stuff… uh, school groups sleep over sometimes next to the fish tanks. Oh! This was cool: apparently, people can get married in the shark tank. You get lowered down in a cage and the ceremony is done through hand signals."

"You're kidding. I can't see that ending in anything but catastrophe."

Suddenly there was a shriek from someone in the next room over. "Oh my God, he's _dead!_"

_Right on cue._ "Dammit, why does this happen _every time?_ Just once I'd like to hang out with you and pretend we're normal."

"I don't think I've ever seen normal in my life," Conan replied absently, trying to tug Heiji along so they could go investigate. They raced to the next room, where a crowd was gathered around the tank that, according to the sign, held… sharks. _Of course,_ Heiji thought with a groan. _It couldn't be the starfish or the snails._

He and Conan pushed their way to the front, taking in the sight. A man of about forty was lying face up on the coral and sand, unmoving. Already dead, then. There were no scratches on him, but around his neck there was a thin line that had begun to bruise. Similar lines appeared on his wrists with tiny, vertical patterns imprinted along them. He was dressed casually, like many of the fathers and husbands here with family. No bulges in his front pockets, but maybe there was a wallet or registered mobile phone in the back pocket. _No, a phone would be too damaged to use, and there's no way to tell if it's really his._

The sharks basically ignored the new addition to their tank, circling normally in the water. Mothers were taking their children away, sure that any moment now the predatory beasts would converge on the corpse. Everyone else was indulging in their morbid curiosity. Some preteen had started filming the scene on his mobile phone with his buddies.

There was a loud cry from a woman. "Genkei!" Her perfectly pinned hair and smart dress belied her panicked attitude as she shoved everyone out of her way. "Genkei! Somebody get my husband out of there!" An aquarium employee was hissing into his radio, gesturing wildly as if the people on the other end could see him. "What happened? How did he get in there? You!" she exclaimed, zeroing in on the kid with the cell phone. "Did you see what happened? Did you record it?" The middle schoolers shrugged and muttered that they'd only come after someone screamed.

Heiji could see she was turning this into even more of a scene. "Lady," he said, holding his hands up so she could see he wasn't going to do anything, "calm down. What's your name?"

"Tsukuda Hina."

To make sure, he pointed at the tank and said, "Then this man is Tsukuda Genkei? Your husband?" She nodded silently, moving her hands to cover her face. Her shoulders began to shake.

"It's gonna be fine," Conan chirped, kid-mode turned up to eleven. The Osakan held back a snicker. "Heiji-niichan is a detective, and he says that _I'm_ his best assistant! We'll definitely help you!"

Heiji turned to the employee. "Has someone called the police?" The unfortunate staff member nodded. "Don't let anyone else out of this room. It's _possible_ the murderer is still here. If there was some sorta trick set up, he or she might have come back to view their handiwork."

"I don't reckon anyone would want to leave at this point," the hassled teen muttered. Privately, Heiji agreed with his assessment. Everyone wanted to see the sharks' reaction to the unexpected guest.

"Is there any way to get –" Heiji gestured at the sharks, "– _those_ out of the tank?" _There's no way they get fed in front of the public._ He was by no means afraid of sharks, but anything the fishy predators did in there risked contaminating the body.

"We're working on it right now." He left to cordon off the exhibit. Heiji rejoined Conan by the victim's wife, and the detectives exchanged a glance. _Nothing new,_ Conan sent his way. Heiji nodded.

"Hina-chan?" A tall man in a sweater strode into the area, spotting the upset woman. "What's wrong? What's going on here?" Hina pointed wordlessly at the tank, bandages covering her other-wise empty fingers. Frowning, he strode over, his body stiffening when he caught sight of the body. He came back, face grave. "That's – I can't believe – did this just happen?" She nodded.

"Do you know the deceased?" Heiji asked.

His eyes narrowed. "Who're you?"

"I work with the police on homicide cases. I'm a detective. How do you know Tsukuda Genkei?"

"He's my best friend. Genkei, Hina-chan, and I arranged to meet up with some acquaintances here today." He stole another look at the tank, and then winced again. "I can't believe this happened to _him_, of all people."

"The police will be here soon," Conan assured them.

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"Conan-kun? Heiji-kun?" Both boys turned around to see the police officers who'd responded to the call.

"Takagi-keiji," Conan smiled genuinely. "Satou-keiji. I'm glad you guys came for this one." He pointed them in the direction of the scene while Heiji listed off their combined observations.

Takagi looked at the tank and grimaced. "Not that I'm not grateful, but why didn't the sharks…?" The aquarium had gotten the animals out of the tank, but people were still loitering around the glass. The police's presence would speed up the spectators' removal to a separate holding area, especially since the professional divers were already prepped to get the body out.

"Sharks are sensitive to electric signals," Conan supplied. "They use electroreception to find prey, but since the victim was already dead when he was dumped in the water, he didn't generate an electric field so he didn't register as prey. It looks like he was strangled, so there was no blood to attract them by scent either. While all of their senses are sharp, there isn't anything about Tsukuda-san that appeals to them. I don't know their feeding schedules, but I suspect they're not hungry when the guests are allowed to see them."

And the child act had pulled a disappearing act. "Ku– Conan-kun, next time you stay up too late watching TV, I'm gonna tell Neechan." _Cut it out, Kudo._ Conan rolled his eyes before moving back over towards the shark tank.

Satou's lips turned up. "We're used to Conan-kun knowing unusual things, Heiji-kun. I assume the two of you want to listen while we interview the victim's wife and friends?"

"Of course."

After Satou and Takagi thoroughly combed the area and made official notes about the scene – including Heiji and Conan's observations – Satou whipped out her notepad and Takagi headed for the recovered body. The victim's best friend went first since he was better collected, and the Tsukudas' other acquaintances grouped together behind him, listening. "What's your name? How long have you known Tsukuda Genkei?"

"I'm Endo Shou, and I've known him since high school. We worked in the same restaurant playing music, him on the guitar, me on the piano. After we graduated we stayed in contact and eventually ended up getting jobs in the same city. We've gotten much closer over the years."

"Where were you between 9:45 and 10am?" Heiji interrupted. The body had been dumped at 10:01am.

"I was talking with a security guard until 9:54." At their questioning looks, he added, "I thought there was a suspicious figure following a group of children, so I brought it to the staff's attention. He kept taking pictures when the children weren't looking, so I got worried. After I was done talking to the security guard, I went to the restroom for a few minutes because my anxiety was acting up. I'd just gotten out when I found Hina-chan here."

Satou looked up from her scribbling. "So would you say you got along well with him?"

"Yes. We are– were great friends."

Behind him, one of Hina's friends frowned. "I thought you guys were fighting." Heiji's interest sparked.

Someone else from the group nodded in agreement. "Yes, I wasn't expecting you to come today when Tsukuda-chan invited us."

Endo Shou visibly blanched. Heiji and Conan exchanged a glance, and the former saw Satou's eyes sharpen as she caught it too. "Well, we _had_ gotten into a little argument, but it wasn't anything important. We had a disagreement over sports teams."

None of the detectives were satisfied with that, but Satou changed her method of questioning, clearly adding him to her suspect list. "Have you been here often, Endo-san?"

"No, this is my second time."

"How long ago were you here?"

"A few months ago."

"You wouldn't have a problem with showing us the receipt for that, would you?"

Shou caught on. "Wait a minute! Are you suspecting me?"

"Yes," the female officer answered bluntly.

He frowned angrily. "I think I want a lawyer. You police could turn this harmless disagreement into a motive for murder. What am I, a rabid baseball fan? I killed him because his team won against mine?" Shou snorted, pulling out his phone and dialing. "Hello… yes, it's me again. I need you to come out to the aquarium… yes, the newer one… yeah… alright, thank you." He snapped the phone shut, glaring at Satou and Heiji. "I'll speak to you when he gets here."

Heiji pulled Conan to the side. "What have you got, Kudo?"

"He fiddled with his phone immediately once he got here and has ignored six calls from his wife since he entered this area. Every few minutes his hand twitches towards the phone when it vibrates, but he ultimately lets it go. I saw when he pulled it out that there missing calls from 'honey'."

"Maybe he's having an affair?"

"I don't think so. He shook off any of the unattached women here who tried to comfort him. However, it's still suspicious. What about you?"

"He's telling the truth about playing the piano. The calluses on his hands are right for it. He works in an office, possibly as a secretary – something that involves a lot of writing. The marks on the first three fingers of his right hand are pronounced. As for the victim's wife, she's been favoring her left foot."

They broke off when Satou approached Hina. "Tsukuda-san, how long have you been married to Genkei-san?"

"Fourteen years next month."

"Where did you get those injuries on your hands?"

Hina looked down at the bandages. "I cut myself on something in the tropical fish exhibit, I think… yes, I'm sure it was there. You can talk to the lady on staff there, Genkei and I had been asking her questions. I left Genkei talking with her when I went to clean up, but on my way out I ran into the other families we had invited at around 9:52. We got to talking, and we eventually moved towards this section when I heard the commotion."

"The wrappings on her fingers could easily cover any marks from strangling the victim," Conan murmured to Heiji.

"The room he was dropped from might have evidence," Heiji answered. They hadn't been able to leave the area for fear that suspects would try to exit before the police arrived to clear them. Conan nodded and Heiji signaled "up" to Satou before they left.

The detectives quickly found the room directly above the shark tank overrun with officers and equipment. There was a cage that was hooked up to a series of wires and pulleys next to the platform that opened up to the tank. A metal cabinet of wetsuits stood beside a similar cabinet labelled "oxygen tanks." Masks and the other gear were stored in other places around the room, impeccably organized. Heiji looked around for something, anything out of place. Nothing. _Genkei would have struggled. There would be _something_ to indicate that he'd been here._

Genkei or his killer had clearly forced the locked door open, but the officers said that there hadn't been fingerprints anywhere on the door. One of the other policemen that Conan recognized confided that there hadn't been any personal objects on the body.

No wallet or phone, no sign of struggle… "I don't think he was killed here."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

From Meri: The getting-married-in-a-shark-tank thing is real – my cousin got married at an aquarium and mentioned that apparently people could make their vows in the tank (he and his now-wife, however, did not). But damn, could you imagine the pictures? Talk about a badass couple. I did some research on sharks and electroreception, but I'm not sure I got it right – I just needed the body to not get eaten. And tell me that sharks sensing prey through electric fields is not both AWESOME and absolutely TERRIFYING. Also, discovering the Traffic Stats tab on FF a few weeks ago was a dangerous thing. I keep looking at it, going "Holy smoke, people are actually reading my story" and generally freaking out. Over 150 visitors to The H-K Files so far – thanks, you guys! Also, I cherish every review, so please let me know how I'm doing! I'm always looking to improve my writing, so constructive criticism is welcome :)


	7. Sharkbait, Part 2

Disclaimer: In other news, I STILL don't own DC or MK, which is really too bad because I like the characters so much. Also, for this story I kept trying to work in a cameo for the MK characters where Aoko would punish Kaito for something by taking him to the aquarium (he's an ichthyophobe), but alas, I couldn't work it in smoothly. Just imagine it as the story continues and giggle to yourselves.

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

After thirty minutes of searching the premises with Conan, Heiji found it. "Kudo, here." Conan joined him in front of the unobtrusive door in a deserted hallway off-limits to visitors. The keyhole on the doorknob had more scratches around it that could be attributed to carelessness. _Someone picked the lock. The scratches still shine, so they're recent._ Slipping on gloves, the Osakan opened the door.

Inside was a small room with a tiny bed, chair, and cabinets of medical supplies. The sheets were wadded up messily on the floor, cups of supplies were tipped over, scattering their contents along the counter, and the mirror had a long crack through it. _This is more like it._ Heiji's sharp eyes spied scratch marks on the cushioned chair, and he bent over to examine them. Four long lines cut through the fabric in two places. He put his fingers up to the lines: a good match.

"There are scuff marks under the chair," Conan pointed out, having silently joined the Western detective.

"Someone was tied up here." _Probably Genkei_, he didn't have to say.

"How would the killer have lured him here?" The Beikan wondered out loud. "It would have to be someone he trusted. His wife or Endo, maybe… but Tsukuda Hina was talking to her friends when the body dropped, and seven minutes isn't enough time for Endo to bring Genkei here, subdue and strangle him _and_ get him into the shark tank." He sighed. "I'm almost sure it's the wife, but I don't know how. She didn't look all that strong, and Genkei clearly wasn't a light man in life."

Heiji replied, "That could have been fixed if she used a cart, but it still doesn't explain how she was elsewhere when the corpse fell into the tank. There wasn't anything in there that suggested a remote-trigger or a trick, and don't forget that the door to the room was _forced_ open. That suggests Endo is the killer. He's bulkier than Hina; he could break down a door."

"You don't have to be bulky to break down a door. I mean, look at _you."_ Conan chuckled.

"Oi, oi, you have _no_ room to talk. You can take down doors too with those shoes of yours and a soccer ball. Let's go tell Takagi-keiji about what we found." Back in the shark zone, Satou had finished the friends and family and had moved onto interviewing the security guard whom Endo had been talking to before the murder. The detectives sidled up to her.

"Did you notice anything strange about Endo-san when you were talking to him?"

The guard shook his head. "I don't really know the man. He just approached me about the questionable guest and described his observations." He paused. "Now that you mention it, he did keep checking the clock behind me. I figured he was meeting up with someone since his phone kept ringing. They probably have his jacket, too."

Satou's eyebrows jumped. "He had a jacket on before?"

"Yes. I don't think he could have put it in the coat room because it was in the opposite direction from where I saw him head." The detectives and policewoman looked over at Shou, who was helping a wobbling Hina over to a bench against the wall.

The staff member who had been talking to the Tsukudas confirmed that Hina had left because of a cut. The employee said she had talked with Genkei for a while longer until he got a phone call and left.

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

Heiji watched Conan toddle over to the pair of suspects on the bench. "Excuse me," the Eastern detective said to Hina. "Heiji-niichan's phone is outta batteries. Can I borrow yours to call my mom about getting home?" He leaned in a little more and said, "I was gonna ask that police lady, but she's scary."

Hina laughed. "Sorry, little boy, I didn't bring my mobile phone with me today." Heiji didn't believe that. _If she was planning to meet up here with her friends, then it would make sense to have a phone in case they couldn't find each other._

"Aw, okay. What about you?" Conan looked at Shou.

"As long as you don't answer any calls for me, I don't see why not," the man replied.

Conan made a show of being thrilled and then typed into the phone. "I learned my mama's number all by myself," he said proudly, putting the phone up to his ear. After a short (faked) conversation with his mother, Conan hung up and handed the phone back.

"Heiji-niichan! Mama said that if I was good I could have ice cream later." He dragged the other detective off towards the officers examining the body, lowering his voice. "There was a call that came in during the same minute the body was dropped. It was another one from his wife."

"What does that mean to you?"

"Let's say Shou is the killer. He's up in the cage room with a dead Genkei and plans to make a cut on the body so blood will spill – that makes sense to anyone who knows anything about sharks' sense of smell – and suddenly his phone rings." Heiji remembered that the security guard had mentioned Shou's phone _ringing,_ not vibrating_. _"He panics, maybe because it's not on vibrate, and dumps the body without spilling blood. Then he comes down and switches his phone to vibrate, hoping that the sharks will eat the body anyway so cause of death can't be determined."

"That would make sense, but seven minutes is still too short." They frowned in silence as they contemplated the case.

Takagi came over to the two detectives. "How's your part of the investigation going?"

"Hmm?" Conan said absently, thinking. "Oh, we're still working on it."

Takagi patted the kid's head sympathetically. "Don't look so worried, Conan-kun. When you and Heiji-kun work together, cases seem to just fall into place."

The two teens' heads snapped up. "I know who did it," they said together.

"Oh," Takagi said, dazed. "That was quick. Er… good job. Who was it?"

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

Conan and Heiji called over Satou and Takagi to the bench where the two prime suspects were sitting and the rest of the group was standing. "Takagi said that you two had figured out who the killer is?"

The smaller detective nodded at Heiji to begin. "Initially, we were stumped by this case. The two people most likely to have committed the crime both had alibis for part of the time slot needed to kill Genkei-san. Hina-san might've been able to get him alone for the murder, but she was accounted for when the deceased was thrown into the shark tank. Shou-san might've been able to break down the door, but even he wasn't good enough to orchestrate the scene in seven minutes. They both had motives. Hina-san and Genkei-san were in the middle of some marital problems –"

"Marital problems?" Satou looked over the suspected woman again. "How do you know, Heiji-kun?"

"She isn't wearing her wedding ring, only lots of bandaids," Conan pointed out.

Heiji continued, "Under pressure from friends, Shou-san admitted to having a fight with the deceased, which I doubt was over a simple sports discussion if even acquaintances noticed it. Whatever that argument was about could've been a motive for murder."

"So who do you imagine did it?" Satou asked.

Shou huffed unbelievingly. "You let children solve your cases? What kind of policewoman are you?"

"I thought you weren't talking until your lawyer got here?" Satou shot back. "Please continue, Heiji-kun."

"Like I said, we were baffled… until Takagi-keiji unknowingly gave us a different angle for the case: what if they'd killed him _together?_ If that was true, then lots of things would make sense and it would be possible to have an alibi for part of the timeframe for Genkei-san's death."

"That's absurd," Hina declared. "What reason would I have to kill my husband? Why would Shou-kun want his best friend dead?"

"There was an affair," Heiji said.

Hina stood up. "My husband would never have an affair."

"That's funny, Heiji-niichan" Conan said with a faux-confused expression. "I thought you meant Shou-san and Hina-san when you said that." Everyone turned back to the two potential collaborators.

Heiji spoke again, not backing down. "So your husband had an affair with someone, which upset both his wife and his best friend. My deduction is that it was Shou-san's wife. When he called for his lawyer, he started with 'yes, it's me _again'_. That suggests he's been talking to his lawyer recently. Divorce papers?"

"Genkei never would have loved Endo-chan," Hina-san maintained. "That's a ridiculous story you're spouting there, kid."

"Here's the scenario I came up with, and everything fits plausibly. First, Hina-san pretends to cut her hand while she and her husband are talking to an employee about the tropical fish. This is to justify the bandages she'll have later and her departure for the bathroom. With this she also gets a witness who will say that Hina-san wasn't the last one with Genkei-san. After that she calls Genkei-san and tells him to come help her in a staff-only area to find the right kind of bandages, maybe claiming that the fictional staff member who'd brought her there had to leave for something. She ties his hands after a struggle and strangles him, but because she can't carry him, she leaves to join her friends after destroyin' both of their mobile phones."

"That explains why Genkei-san left the staff lady in a hurry!" Conan exclaimed cutely. "And why Hina-san said she didn't bring a phone even though she was meeting up with people."

Heiji shot a quick grin at Conan. "At an appointed time, Shou-san leaves the security guard whom he'd been talkin' to about a made-up figure and puts the body in a container – a garbage can or something similar – and takes the already-dead Genkei-san to the shark tank. While he's getting ready, though, his wife calls him again, startling him into dropping the body without drawing blood. He changes clothes, or at least gets rid of the jacket he was wearing before, and takes the garbage can back. He returns to 'find' Hina-san in the shark area."

Conan added, "We thought it was weird that the door to the cage room had been broken down completely when the place where he'd actually been killed had a sloppily picked lock. With the idea of two culprits, this becomes more logical." _Kudo's getting excited,_ Heiji noted with some amusement. "Hina-san has enough hairpins on her head to pick a lock, and Shou-san could take out the door to the cage room. This also explains why Hina-san was so upset that those middle schoolers were recording the tank with the body."

"But what'll really seal it is the piano wire," Heiji finished.

"What?" Takagi frowned.

"The lines on Genkei-san's neck and wrists – and I suspect ankles as well – had vertical imprints running along them. The same kind of lines that, say, piano wire would have. It would leave marks on the killer as well as the victim because of how hard she had to pull. Hina-san's bandages aren't to cover up a small cut; they're to cover up the lines from where she strangled him. She couldn't risk getting rid of the wire while talkin' with her friends. They might have noticed. So she kept it on her person, and since she's had trouble walking this morning, to the point of needing Shou-san's help, I would say it's in her boots."

Hina looked shocked. "What? That's…" She looked at Satou's hard stare, and obviously realized that lying wouldn't help at this point. Sighing heavily, she shucked off her right shoe and held it out to the officers. "Yes, I did it. I killed my husband with Shou-kun's piano wire."

"_Hina-chan,"_ Shou hissed. "What's wrong with you?"

She ignored him. "I'll tell you what you want to know, though those brats covered most of it. I just want this whole spectacle to be over." The culprits were quickly led away by some of the supporting officers, and Satou began persuading the Tsukudas' associates to leave. Conan's phone rang and, after determining it wasn't the Shinichi phone, walked away to answer.

Heiji found himself standing next to Takagi, watching the not-child bounce around and tell "Ran-neechan" about all the fish he saw and the case he and "Heiji-niichan" had solved. "He's not like other children," Takagi said meaningfully. Then, his gaze still on the Beikan detective, he asked Heiji, "Do you know who he really is?"

The Osakan realized that he'd just entered a very dangerous zone._ Lying to police officers is… bad, but Kudo's identity needs to stay secret._ "I, uh, had a unique advantage when I looked into his background." That was a nice way to put it. The brat had sedated him and horribly imitated his accent to reveal the solution to a case. "But it wasn't my father's resources," he added, "I discovered it myself. I don't think Conan would appreciate if I just told you."

"He does seem very keen to hide anything about his past," Takagi acknowledged carefully.

"If you figured it out on your own and confronted him, he wouldn't lie to you," Heiji swore, knowing it was true. Conan very obviously respected both Takagi and Satou. His behavior towards them on both this case and others proved that. And they could protect themselves much better than Ran, so he might feel more inclined to share what had happened to him.

"Any hints?"

Heiji thought for a while. "His physical appearance is what's throwin' you off the most. If you forget what Conan looks like, and concentrate on who he _is,_ it'll be easier to uncover his secrets. Whatever you discover, _don't_ make it public. Talk to him first."

"Thank you," Takagi responded softly before leaving to join Satou and the other officers.

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"So you never answered my question, Hattori."

"Which one?"

"Whether or not Kazuha-chan is suspicious of you getting along with me. We got into the friend-and-best-friend discussion and never resolved it."

Heiji shifted his weight as the pair of detectives watched Ran and Kazuha exclaim over the turtle pond. "Well, uh, she thinks I just get along well with children."

"An appallingly inaccurate deduction, I take it?"

"Oi, it's not her fault for not knowing you're the only kid I can put up with."

"I'm not a kid! I'm seventeen years old, dammit. I'm _older_ than you." Conan's annoyed expression looked out of place on a grade-schooler.

Heiji laughed. "I don't think Kazuha is suspicious yet. Maybe if she drags me to go babysit with her, she'll figure it out."

"Or maybe when you two have kids of your own," Conan retorted churlishly, clearly still miffed about the "kid" comment.

"There's no call to be rude, Kudo. I would _never_ have kids with that idiot!"

"Four years. That's how long I'm betting on."

"For such a good detective, you're amazingly stupid."

"Haibara's got money on five years. I have a separate bet with Hakuba – in candy, since he thinks I'm a child and gambling money would be wrong – and _he_ reckons it'll take you ages to figure out whether or not you're in love with someone; eight years."

"_You're betting on my love life?_ You little pipsqueak, I'm adding _three_ punches to the tally for when you're full-size again!"

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

From Meri: It's always piano wire. In addition, writing mysteries is HARD. I love writing the banter for Heiji and Conan, but the actual cases are difficult. I appreciate detective stories even more now. Also, here's my reasoning for Heiji's assurance to Takagi that Conan would share his circumstances: if Satou and Takagi ever came to the conclusion that Edogawa Conan was Kudo Shinichi and confronted him, they'd be a _lot_ harder to fool than Ran has been so far. I think Conan would realize that they couldn't be tricked and decide to not insult them by lying. Plus, having the police on his side to do some very furtive investigating could only help him.


	8. The Campground Poisonings, Part 1

Disclaimer: Verily, I own neither DC nor MK. Here's the story I mentioned last case that needed revamping. The premise is actually funnier in light of the conversation at the end of the previous case (the setting, that is, not the murder part). Enjoy!

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"If you're being serious, Hattori, I'm hanging up. That just might be a special brand of hell for me."

Heiji laughed. "Hold up a minute, it's for a case." He'd wanted to talk to Conan privately, but his father was standing right there, waiting imposingly for an answer.

He grinned as the Detective of the East paused. _Hooked,_ he thought_. _"My dad's got a case he wants me to, er, go undercover for, but I need you to help, _Conan-kun."_

"Ah." Even without seeing the little detective, Heiji knew he'd gotten the message that they weren't totally alone. But there was some incredulity. "Wait. Your father wanted you to ask _me_ to help with a case? I'm… seven."

"Wellll, when the suggestion for having a child as part of my cover came up, naturally I thought of you."

"I'm surprised Hattori-keibu would voluntarily let a kid into a dangerous situation."

"Aw, Conan-kun, I promised that you're quite mature for your age and won't bother me during the investigation. You'd be part of my cover, but you'd be quite safe as long as you acted properly."

"I see," Conan said, and Heiji was quite sure that he did.

"Plus, the culprit hasn't been poisoning children. As long as you get permission, you can come."

The other detective sighed. "Fine. I'll ask Ran and pack a bag. _You_ have to tell the Detective Boys when you pick me up that I'm abandoning them to go undercover at a children's summer camp."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

Conan snickered as the car pulled up to the camp's entrance. "I still can't believe _you're_ going to be a camp counselor."

"What? Most of 'em are about our age, right?"

"Yes, but you're impatient, Hattori. You do realize that you've been put in charge of actual, live children, right? And we did talk about how good you are with kids…"

Actually, Heiji wasn't overly worried. "They're a bunch of kids being dropped in a place full of games. They'll either run themselves ragged or pull out their phones and computers, but either way we can investigate in peace. It's not like we'll have to entertain them."

Conan laughed for a solid minute, to Heiji's increasing annoyance. _I wish he was full-size just so I could give him a good smack. One more for the tally. _"I dare you to say the same thing in a week. I thought you had little cousins." The apparent kid wiped tears from his eyes.

"What makes you think they'll be trouble?"

Conan lowered his voice so Heiji's father couldn't hear them. "You forget that _I'm_ the one who has been regularly putting up with first graders for the last year. With children, 'in peace' means absolutely nothing. Guaranteed. I don't know that they'll be _bad_, but kids are always full of surprises."

"Haha. It's not gonna take us a week to solve this, Kudo." They were interrupted when Hattori Heizo put the car in park and cleared his throat. Heiji's dad wouldn't be getting out because he was recognizable as a police figure. Before this, the poisonings had stopped whenever there was a police presence on the camp property – which was the whole reason that Heiji was going undercover in the first place. The camp had managed to keep the whole debacle out of the papers so far, but since the camp catered to an exclusive clientele – the wealthiest families of Japan – there was the chance that the media would find out and swamp the place, making an investigation difficult if not impossible.

"So," Conan began once they'd unloaded their bags and waved goodbye to Heiji's father. "Are you going to fill me in a little more about this case? All you've said so far is that there's poison. What kind? How many casualties?"

"Two, but they were the eighth and ninth victims of the poisoner. The other seven varied between mild poisoning and needing to be hospitalized. Some of them have recovered over the past few weeks, but haven't been able to shed any light on the identity of the poisoner." At Conan's quirked eyebrow, Heiji elaborated, "Most of the kids here are privately tutored, so they've been out of school and at camp for a month."

The shorter detective's expression cleared briefly before asking, "Then what's our story? You're a counselor and I'm a camper, but what's our excuse for arriving a month late?"

"There's another group of kids who go through school like us, so they're just startin' break. I have to monitor seven of them plus you. You're the son of my older sister, who married into money, and your mother _insisted_ that I be allowed as a counselor to keep you company. That will explain why I'm not one of their super-qualified, background-checked babysitters and why you're hanging around with me."

Conan nodded. "And why I have a different last name. If the kids aren't being poisoned, as you mentioned over the phone, then the victims must be counselors." He was dead on, as usual. "Be careful, Hattori."

"'Course. I'll have your super kick to back me up if I manage to get into any trouble."

"I'm not joking." The Eastern detective shifted his gaze to the side. "You're my friend and I'd hate to see you get hurt."

Smiling, Heiji ruffled the kid's hair. "Thanks, Kudo. Same to you."

"If you're going to call me that, at least think of a plausible reason why. I'm Edogawa Conan to the rest of these people. And don't you need a fake name?"

The Osakan sidestepped the question. "As long as you don't call me 'Hattori', we'll be fine."

"Puh-lease, I'm not calling you _Heiji-niichan_ the whole time we're investigating_._"

Heiji grinned at the Beikan detective's sarcastic expression. "Then 'Hattori' is fine, but only when no one else is around."

"Whatever. Like _you_ remember to call me Conan around other people." Someone had noticed them standing there and ushered them towards the main building, where the other new campers and counselors were gathering in the foyer. Heiji guessed there were about thirty kids milling about, the few taller people obviously their assigned babysitters. _Kudo was just exaggerating,_ he thought, snorting. _The kids will be okay. I mean, he keeps the Detective Boys in line pretty well, and _they_ scramble all over murder scenes._

A woman with a clipboard came up to the pair. "Are you Toyama Heiji?" He mentally winced as Conan's wicked smile almost split his face.

"Ah, yes," he mumbled, waiting for the inevitable snark from the peanut gallery. The woman checked off his name and led him over to a mostly open space occupied by four children and their respective luggage.

The other detective waited until she'd left. "How does your girl feel about this?" He was holding back laughter in front of the other children, but that goofy grin was still there.

"It was dad's idea. I'm not tellin' her, and you're not either, _right,_ Conan-kun?"

The doe-eyed look made an appearance. "Of course not, Uncle Heiji. I wouldn't dream of it." But he was still beaming at the Osakan's alias.

"Hey," one of the kids said to Heiji. "Aren't you going to ask us our names?"

"I'm Toyama Heiji," and oh, did it hurt to say that again, "but I'd really prefer that you not call me by my last name. This is my older sister's kid, Edogawa Conan." Conan nodded at the other children politely. "And you?"

Masaru was the boy who had spoken and obviously the leader of the group, being the eldest at ten years old. The boy wearing the blue Kamen Yaiba t-shirt was Hiroshi, tiny Kyo stood shielded by the other children, and Shogo had golden hair that suggested foreign blood. Shortly after their introductions, the three remaining children in Group 14 arrived. Toshihiro ignored everyone but his soft-spoken twin, Chikao, and Botan was reading a book even while walking and talking to the other boys. They'd all been in the same group last year, as evidenced by their familiar chatter with one another.

"So," Heiji said, putting on a purposely big smile, "what do you guys wanna do first?" _If I get off on the right foot with them, then maybe they'll be good and Kudo's prediction will be wrong._

"Huh, you really _haven't _done this before," Masaru replied, unimpressed. "First thing's settin' our stuff in our rooms, then you gotta check the schedule. Prob'ly lunch."

Shogo piped up. "I heard we got the cabin near the archery grounds this year." A few of the other kids cheered.

"Perhaps you'd like to lead the way," Conan suggested, picking up his bag.

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

Heiji zeroed in on the counselor whose posse was sitting at the table next to Group 14's. _I don't recognize her from this morning, so she's probably been here around for the murders._ After polite greetings and some initial small talk at the counselor's lunch table, he brought the conversation around to the poisonings. "Were you here when they happened, Kanda-san? What do you remember about them?"

She wrinkled her nose. "We didn't know the first few incidents were deliberate. People thought it was unintentional food poisoning or an illness."

"Okay, what about just the most recent two, the murders?"

"I wasn't there when Fujita-chan was…" she trailed off. "They kept the details from anyone who wasn't around when it happened. I know Taketa-san got his through food, though, because he was really hungry that day and ate a _ton_ more than usual. Not ten minutes after dessert, he collapsed. The medical staff whisked him away and all, but it was pretty shortly after that they told the counselors that he'd died too."

"Who came in contact with the food?"

"I dunno. The cook, the ladies in the lunch line, and him, I suppose. Why you so interested?"

_Because detectives need witness reports_. "I heard about it but didn't know much else. Curious, I guess you could say."

Heiji tried to catch Conan's eye across the room, tapping out a message on his hand in an improvised, visual Morse code when the Eastern detective finally looked over. Anything audial would have been lost in the din of the lunchroom. _Cook,_ he'd tapped. Conan nodded once to show his understanding and looked over towards the kitchens. A large woman who was bossing around the girls behind the counter came out with more sushi. One of the campers in line mistakenly tried to hand his tray to her, and she snapped at him. The kid scurried further in the line, cowed.

_Does not like kids,_ Conan tapped back.

_Bad place to work, then,_ Heiji replied. The small detective cracked a smile at that.

"What were you saying to Conan-kun?" Botan asked when lunch was over and Heiji had rejoined Group 14. "He barely spoke a word to us the whole meal."

"We were just talking about… family stuff. Nothin' important. Conan-kun takes a while to get used to new people. He's mature for his age… sorta like you."

The bookworm brightened at the compliment. "Do you think you could teach me too?"

Surprised, he said, "Sure, kid." Then he reconsidered, thinking about the topics he and Conan would likely be discussing. _Well, even if he learns the letters, he'd need practice before he could keep up with Kudo an' me._

Before he could say more, the other boys' argument interrupted. "But I wanted to go swimming!" Kyo wailed.

"No, we're playin' with chalk on the pavement. Hiroshi and I wanna play four-square." Masaru's hands were on his hips.

"Oi, oi," Heiji interjected. "We have to stay together, so we'll split our free time up to fit in _everyone's_ suggestions." No one was very happy with this compromise, but Heiji was stubborn and divided the interval before their scheduled arts period so the kids had time to play pavement games and go swimming in the small lake.

After Heiji had finished breaking up a small scuffle between Masaru and Hiroshi, he turned to find another teen patching up Chikao, who had apparently skinned his knees pretty badly while jump-roping. "I can make you up some tea later with special ingredients that will help prevent infection," the other teen said. "Do you want that?" Chikao nodded mutely, hopping up to rejoin his friends. He sat down on the bench and gestured for Heiji to join him, putting his arms behind his head. "You're new this year, aren't you? My name's Okazaki Jiro." He held out a hand to shake. "I'm a 'floater' counselor this week. I watch groups when their counselors need bathroom breaks or want a nap."

Heiji shook his hand and fed the guy his cover story before adding, "I heard that there were some deaths earlier in the summer. Have you heard anything about that?"

"More than just murders. There were seven surviving poison victims as well. All of them ingested the substance and were affected a few hours after it had entered their system… and before you start getting nervous, I only know that because of my interest in herbal medicines and because Murai-kun and Fujita-chan – the third and eighth victims – are good friends of mine. Well, in Aiko-chan's case, I suppose I should say she _was_ a good friend of mine." He smiled sadly.

_He's quick to explain away his detailed knowledge._ "Where were you when she died?"

Jiro raised his eyebrows. "Telling stories at the campfire with the other counselors. The police questioned all of us after her death, and I have alibis for several of the poisonings. Relax, new guy. Just because I was sitting at the same table as Takata-san doesn't mean I killed him, either. Personally, my bet's on the cook. She owes the camp director a bunch of money, and they came to the agreement that she would work here for a set number of years until she's paid it off. If the camp closes, she's probably off the hook. Plus, she really hates working here." He checked his watch. "Ooh, I'd better get over to the gazebo. The water balloon fight starts in ten minutes and I _know _someone's not gonna want to stick around for that. Nice meeting you."

The day moved very quickly after that, and before Heiji knew it, it was dark and all the campers were gathered around the fire, merrily singing campfire songs. Next to him, Conan looked miserable. "Tired, Kudo?"

"Yes. I'll be fine as long as no one asks me to sing." Right, he was tone deaf. "This whole thing is just an unwanted distraction. We could be out investigating right now, but instead we're here. Singing. Campfire songs."

Mercifully, the singing stopped shortly after, but then they split off into smaller groups for ghost stories. Kyo and Chikao clutched one another as Hiroshi spun a tale about the mysterious man living in the woods. It seemed that no one knew anything other than the fact that he owned some property in the forest and was seen around by campers occasionally, but the boys' imaginations ran wild at the thought of a dark outsider sneaking into the campgrounds for nefarious purposes. He'd supposedly been out there for years, and the boys referenced stories told by the older campers. Conan looked as bored as Heiji felt. They'd both seen things scarier than shadowy strangers on a daily basis.

Later, Heiji considered that Conan might have been on to something about the unpredictability of children. They'd been exhausted and dinner and through most of the campfire songs, but after a round of scaring the pants off each other, they were somehow energetic again. Heiji groaned into his covers as he heard another pillow fight break out in the kids' room. It was way past bedtime; Masaru was undoubtedly the leader of the latest insurrection. _I could strangle the lot of them,_ he griped, getting up to take out some of his frustration by yelling at them to go to sleep.

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

From Meri: I never went to summer camp so I've made some assumptions about them based on other people's experiences and other fictional works. In addition to including Western games like soccer and baseball, I looked up Japanese children's games (yeah, they have a Wikipedia page for that; who knew?) and found that most of them had Western counterparts, so I kept the English names. On another note, I'm pretty sure Heiji's dad has "keibu" after his name, since he's the head of the Osaka Police, but I couldn't find anything to support/refute that. And if you're wondering why Hattori-keibu used "Toyama" for Heiji's alias even though Toyama-keiji is a police detective too, well, Kazuha's dad isn't as well known as Heiji's dad, and Hattori-keibu was probably in a hurry to come up with a pseudonym. Plus, they're best friends and probably ship their kids.


	9. The Campground Poisonings, Part 2

Disclaimer: No, I still don't own DC or MK. I decided to divide this case up by in-universe days (it takes three days, so there's one more chapter coming).

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"It's not my fault I've been playing longer than they've been alive," Conan muttered to Heiji after the rest of Group 14 kicked him out of their pickup soccer match. He stuck his hands in his pockets as the pair strolled back to the cabin. Heiji could've sworn that he'd put his wallet in his jacket this morning, but it was nowhere to be found.

"Hey, I left them with Kanda-san and her girls so we could talk without anyone interfering. We're not any closer to learning anythin' about the case, so we should come up with a plan." The Beikan nodded. Heiji unlocked the cabin and found the door to his room slightly ajar. _I closed it_, he remembered. _Did someone find out why we're here? Who could've gotten in?_ Carefully he slid up next to the door, Conan moving silently behind him.

_I don't have my kendo gear, so I'll have to take them by surprise._ Shoving the door open, Heiji jumped into the room – and a bucket of paint fell on him, spilling pink all over his clothes. His first thought was of the Kaitou Kid hair dye incident and, in a moment of weakness, was struck with sympathy for the half-British detective. Once was an inconvenience, but after that it was _damn annoying_. Luckily, Heiji's hat had been tucked in his back pocket and was spared the paint makeover. _If that had been damaged, I wouldn't have been responsible for the consequences._

"Those kids work quickly," Conan commented. "I wonder when they got the paint." It was obviously a prank from Group 14. The boys had keys to the cabin and had continued to complain well through the morning about Heiji enforcing lights-out. The Osakan's missing wallet was probably in their mischievous little hands.

_Oh, crap, that has my real name on my school ID. _"Do they have a martial arts building here? I really feel the need to practice kendo all of a sudden."

"I bet you do."

Heiji got an idea. "You know, we have some time before everyone expects us back; we could go look in the victims' rooms to see if there are clues as to why they were targeted." After Heiji changed, the pair started with the most recent victim's room: Taketa Hideki, the second fatality. His group of kids had been moved to another cabin and assigned a new counselor, but Taketa's personal effects were still in his room. Heiji searched his bags and found clothes, some manga, toiletries, and magazines with swimsuit models, but nothing that suggested a reason for his demise.

"Well, this is… interesting," Conan commented. "Heiji, come here." The teen laid down flat next to the Beikan detective and peered under the bed, lifting the lopsided sheets. His eyebrows shot up: inside an upturned box-top rested rows of bottles, some beakers and test tube racks, and other chemistry supplies.

"Interesting," Heiji echoed.

"Perhaps Taketa was friends with the culprit. Whoever was poisoning everyone probably didn't want to keep the supplies in his or her own room. I wouldn't. The murderer might have killed Taketa to keep him quiet."

"Or perhaps the killer moves the chemicals around so they're not in the same place twice. The culprit knows that this room is empty and placing the murder weapon here would keep it from leadin' back to him or her."

"Good point." Conan checked his watch. "We should get back. We'll look at the other rooms later." Group 14 was giggling like mad when Conan and Heiji rejoined them. "Did we miss a good joke?" Conan asked innocently.

"How was the cabin?" Toshihiro returned, still grinning like a fool.

Heiji and Conan made a show of looking at each other and shrugging. "No different than when we left for breakfast." The laughing stopped, and the detectives paused to let the kids wonder how Heiji had discovered their trick. "So I remember that we have a time slot with Seto-sensei at some point to play instruments. Let's head over there now."

The campers were less than thrilled to hear that. "I don't really want to go see Seto-sensei," Shogo admitted, clearly speaking for all of them. "Can we say we forgot?"

Conan's eyes narrowed. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's… scary," Hiroshi answered. "He acts all nice in front of the adults, but when they all leave for their breaks, he's different."

Heiji's stomach dropped. "Did he hurt you?"

"No, but he always threatens us when he's angry. He used to be a chemistry professor, but he got fired for blowing something up. Seto-sensei says he'll hurt us with chemicals if we aren't good and use us in experiments. If _you_ tell him we forgot, though, he'll be nice."

"It sounds like he's mentally unstable," Conan commented neutrally, gaze latching onto Heiji's. Chemistry professors had access to all sorts of dangerous substances. The former professor would know how to mix dozens of poisons, and there was nothing saying he hadn't threatened snippy counselors too. Teenagers, unlike children, were less likely to be intimidated by mere words – a few examples would work wonders on their treatment of him.

"You're right, Shogo, I don't think we should go see Seto-sensei," Heiji found himself saying. He didn't want those kids near the potential psychopath. "Let's go play baseball."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

Heiji's phone rang, and he checked the number. _Dad._ He looked up at the two groups of kids playing baseball, debating whether to answer now or call back later. It could be important information about the case, which would be good, but Heiji couldn't talk about that in front of the campers. Okazaki Jiro, who was temporarily in charge of Group 9, caught his indecisive expression and gave him a thumbs-up. Heiji walked away from the baseball diamond and opened his phone. "What's up, dad? Have you got any news?"

"The hospital finally provided us with the details of the murder victims' autopsies. I have copies of the information organized, along with everything about the other victims' conditions. I'm in the parking lot at the moment." Heiji moved quickly, but by the time he got back, more groups of kids had joined groups 9 and 14 and they'd switched games.

Heiji interrogated more counselors while the children engaged in red-light-green-light, playing on the others' obvious exhaustion to keep them from asking _him _tough questions. A couple more thought it was the cook, one counselor suggested a serial killer, and someone thought it was a conspiracy among the "victims" for attention but the last two had inadvertently taken too much. "I'd put money on that Miura man," a tall kid named Keitaro remarked idly.

Heiji's head snapped over. "Who's that?"

"The man who has a house in the woods. In previous years, the veteran counselors put the newbies through an initiation ceremony: the trainees had to go to his house at night and do something to his house. Some years it was pour bags of dirt on his front step, my year it was TP… you'd be doing it this year, Toyama-san, but with the rash of poisonings, no one's really in the mood to go out in the dark and do something dumb."

"Oh, right," one of the female counselors added, "and last year, one of the beginners accidentally killed his cat. I don't think that counselor made it through the summer, though. Didn't he quit after having that latecomer group? Which one was it… fourteen? Yeah, I think Group 14 played one too many pranks on him."

"Er, that's comforting," said the Osakan leader of Group 14. "You think Miura would be angry enough to sneak in and poison people?"

"It makes sense," Keitaro shrugged. "Whoever's doing this has only gone for counselors."

"Where in the forest does he live?" Later, Heiji told Conan what the other counselors said about Miura, and the Eastern detective agreed that they should speak to him. During hide-and-seek, Conan "got lost," and Heiji left Group 14 with the other counselors under the pretense of going to look for him. They met up outside the woods and followed the vague directions Keitaro had given Heiji. The house was easy to find, and wasn't the log cabin Heiji had been expecting.

Miura answered at their first knock. He was about forty and very unassuming. "What do you want?"

"Miura-san, I'm from the camp and –" the man started to shut the door, "– I'm investigating the poison incidents with the police." Conan flashed Heiji a warning glare, which he ignored.

"You look a little young to be an officer." The door opened a little more, though. "What brings you and a child to my home?"

_Well, now I've stuck my foot in it._ There was no way to avoid the truth. "We had some questions for you."

The man laughed freely. "You want to know if I did it? Come in; I'll make some tea and answer your questions. I'll drink the same thing you do so you can be sure I haven't tampered with it." When they were situated, he gestured for them to continue.

"Alright, Miura-san, what were you doing at around midday on May 29th and the evening of June 5th?"

"Hmm, June 5th I was definitely working. I have a call history and time stamps on some projects on my computer."

Conan looked around the simple home. "You have a computer?"

"Yes. I work from home, actually. Having a house in a remote location lets me focus on my job."

"Aren't the campgrounds in your way, then? It would probably be better for you if they closed. Give me a good reason why you wouldn't try to get the camp shut down." Conan crossed his arms, unconvinced.

"I won't deny that closing the camp would benefit me, but I wouldn't need to hurt anyone to accomplish that." He smiled roguishly. "I write security codes for big businesses. That's my job. The camp computers' security would fold like origami under my touch, if I wanted. I could dig up any number of scandals from the employee's personal documents. If it pleased me, I could bring their business down in heartbeat, and I could do it legitimately."

There was not much to be said after that. Conan and Heiji's potential motive for him had fallen flat on its face.

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"We need to revamp our suspects list," Heiji said after Group 14 had fallen asleep that night. He leaned up against the bed's headboard, notebook and pen on his lap.

"By that you mean we should actually find some suspects?" Conan settled himself next to Heiji, staring up at the ceiling. "We have the chemistry-professor-turned-band-instructor, Seto-sensei. His instability probably leads to dangerous experiments. However, he has no solid motive, and it's only speculation that he threatened teens as well as the campers."

"The cook's got a grudge with the director," Heiji reminded him, "but she'd be the first suspect when dealing with ingested poisons. The director comes out to the camp once a week to check on things, and it would be much simpler to just kill _him_. Plus, if she hates _kids_, then why is she hurting the counselors? They're less kid-like than the campers."

Conan sighed and closed his eyes. "Let's keep them on the list but put them to the side. I looked at the tox report from Hattori-keibu, and we should look closer at anyone who knows about chemistry. Or is even knowledgeable about poisonous plants."

Heiji scanned his memory. "In that case, Okazaki-san knew somethin' about herbal remedies. He claims to have an alibi for several of the poisonings, though. As for the others counselors, I don't know..."

"During the balloon fight yesterday I asked a group of counselors about the hydrogen bonds in water and none of them had any clue what I was talking about. No chemistry masterminds there."

"Good thinking, Kudo. I still can't believe that nine people were poisoned and _nobody_ can point to a single person who was there for all nine of them. You'd think it would be easy to find the guy or girl who was around all the victims' food before the poison was administered."

"Mmm, you'd think," Conan replied tiredly. Heiji withdrew into his thoughts, gears turning. _Could it be the cook? She would have the easiest access to their food… but her motive to kill counselors just isn't there. Until we get into the kitchen tomorrow, there's no evidence either. Maybe one of the kitchen girls saw something, or maybe _they_ have some hidden motive for closing the camp…_

After a few minutes, Heiji looked down to find that Conan was asleep. He smiled at the endearing figure. "You're such a kid." He took off the Eastern detective's glasses and set them on the night table, contemplating carrying him to his own bed. _Though, Kudo might wake up if I move him back into the kids' room, or the kids might stir and kick up a fuss._ It would really be easier for everyone if Conan just stayed here. Heiji shimmied the covers out from under his friend, then slipped under and flicked off the light. "'Night, Kudo."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

From Meri: Don't forget to review!


	10. The Campground Poisonings, Part 3

Disclaimer: I don't own DC or MK. I would've moved the storyline along much faster. And now, for this case's exciting conclusion...

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"Heiji-niichan's a _pervert_." There were several voices giggling near the door. _I'm never having kids,_ Heiji swore with a groan, sitting up to deal with the freakishly early risers.

"Oi, what are you guys doin' in my room?" Without disturbing the still-sleeping Conan, Heiji got out of bed and shooed five kids into the hall, closing the door behind him.

Hiroshi answered for them, smug grin on his face. "We wanted to go get breakfast early, but we didn't know you and Conan-kun were being special together."

_I don't think I want to know, but… _"'Special'?"

"My mom says that two people sleep in the same bed only if they _really_ like each other. Chikao and Toshihiro's sister said that her husband does special things to her at night and that's why they live together. Kids aren't supposed to do those things, she said. So…"

It had taken Heiji's sleep-addled brain a moment to catch up, but when he realized what he was being accused of, he vehemently denied the assumption, waving his arms wildly. "No no no. No. Conan's _related_ to me." _Well… close enough._ "It's okay if siblings or cousins sleep in the same bed. I _did not_ do anything 'special' to him. You're right that kids shouldn't know anything about that. We were talking and he fell asleep, so I let him stay."

"You're getting very defensive," Botan noted, never looking up from his book. Conan opened the door a moment later, groggily setting his glasses on his nose, and the conversation ended.

Heiji pretended not to notice when Conan slipped away from the groups' calligraphy session, but made sure to "yell" at him when he returned. The boys would have found it odd otherwise, and might have taken it into their heads to disappear themselves. While Conan was sitting next to Heiji in "time out," the Eastern detective whispered what he'd found.

"There was no one suspicious near the kitchens when Fujita or Taketa were killed. I confirmed that with three kitchen workers independently. They said that the cook hadn't done anything different from usual while preparing the food, and if she had, she'd have risked poisoning everyone who took the same foods as the victims. They had a valid point."

"So we're back to Seto-sensei."

For some reason, Conan colored. "Ah, no, he alibis out of at least the two murders."

"What's his story?"

"I didn't hear it from him but… the three ladies told me that one of the kitchen girls knows exactly where he was during both of those times." When Heiji gestured for him to continue, he reluctantly added, "Her cabin."

Oh. "The mad scientist and the cafeteria girl? Are you serious?"

"He's not as old as I assumed, though it's still illegal. He's twenty-seven."

"That's – they're at least ten years apart. I can't imagine why she'd – that'd be like Neechan having sex with you in that body."

"No it wouldn't, dummy. They're both _physically_ mature enough; we would have the same _mental_ maturity. And thanks, I didn't need that _special _image, Hattori."

Heiji growled. "You were awake? Why'd you let me deal with that conversation alone? I thought we were workin' together here!"

"The notion that you would do _anything_ physically intimate to me in this body was so disturbing that I couldn't keep a composed expression. I'm on your side of this, remember? And anyway, I _told_ you that children are a handful."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

"Kudo, we're goin' to look more suspicious if we keep disappearing like this. The other counselors probably think I'm horrible at counseling, and Okazaki's probably sick of me leaving 14 with him."

Conan finished picking the lock to Taketa-san's cabin again. "You _are_ horrible with kids, and I thought you were the one who wanted to solve this quickly. _I_ certainly don't want to stay any longer than we have to. Let's take a closer look at those chemicals and then go find the other victims' rooms." Gloves on, they pulled out the tray of chemicals and perused them, Heiji taking notes on which ones were present as Conan rattled off the labels. _Someone's got quite the collection,_ Heiji thought.

"Oi, there's a test tube missing from the rack. Maybe it rolled under the bed?" Heiji lay down and looked under. He didn't find the test tube, but he did find something strange. Standing up, Heiji lifted the mattress and removed the notebook hidden there. Conan hopped on the bed so he could look over the Western detective's shoulder.

"Lab notebook," the Beikan declared. "The handwriting matches the tags on Taketa's luggage. That means…" The Osakan nodded grimly. Heiji flipped to the end of the book, where there was a chart of chemical names, dosage amounts, people's names, and results. All of the names matched those who had been poisoned. The results box for the last name on the list, Fujita Aiko, was left blank. She'd been the eighth victim and the first to die.

"Taketa-san was the poisoner," Heiji breathed. "He was testing on them or somethin'."

"Someone found out what he'd done and killed him," Conan asserted.

"I guess it wasn't so hard to find the person who'd been at every incident after all."

Conan frowned. "That means we have two culprits, and it doesn't matter where the second one was during the other poisonings. He or she could have airtight alibis for all of them and still have murdered Taketa-san. That person –" he broke off as the door to the cabin was pushed open.

"Hey, someone's already in here," a child's voice said. There were some murmurs of surprise from other children. Conan shoved the chemicals under the bed and Heiji hid the lab notebook in his jacket. A gaggle of children appeared in the doorway, their counselor behind them.

"Hi," Conan chirped. "Uncle Heiji and I are here on a realllly important mission." Heiji shot a glance at the smaller detective. "We're s'posed to count all of Taketa Hideki-niichan's stuff and write it down. Director-san said that we're like mathemagicians."

Heiji bit his lip to keep from laughing. "I think you mean mathematicians, Conan-kun," he corrected.

Conan pretended to frown. "Oh yeah, that!" He turned to the other kids. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We're looking for Hideki-niichan's Frisbee," one of the boys said shyly. "It's a special Frisbee an' we wanted to play with it. Isamu-niichan said we could," he added, gesturing to the counselor.

"Why is it a special Frisbee?"

The boys looked at each other. "We don't know," the same boy replied, "but Jiro-niichan said it was. He came to borrow it just before dinner a few days ago."

"We're not supposed to tell adults," another kid hissed, scandalized.

"I'm not an adult," Conan lied, "you can tell me."

"There's nothing else to tell. We were all playing in our room and Jiro-niichan said he was going into Hideki-niichan's room for the special Frisbee. We thought he might have returned it after Hideki-niichan went away."

Heiji and Conan's eyes snapped to each other. _It makes sense,_ Heiji thought.

"He has the kids right now," Conan realized, horrified. Not pausing to explain themselves, the two detectives bolted from the room, Heiji dialing his father's number as he ran and saying that he'd found the culprit. They found Group 14 at the badminton courts, smacking the birdie around at each other playfully, forgetting about the net. Jiro was seated at one of the benches with a reading Botan.

Heiji snatched up Botan while Conan quickly herded the other kids. "You need to go back to our rooms," Conan said in a low, serious voice, pointing. The badminton courts were adjacent to the archery range, and beyond that was Group 14's cabin. "Go there and stay until either Hattori or I tell you it's safe."

"You're not the boss of us," Toshihiro retorted, crossing his arms.

"Do it," Heiji commanded, letting Botan down next to the other boys. "This is important, and I'm not gonna to tell you twice."

"What's wrong?" Jiro asked as the boys sprinted off. If Heiji had been less observant, he might have thought the other counselor was genuinely confused. Heiji kept his eyes on the culprit until Conan nodded that Group 14 was inside the cabin.

"We know that you killed Taketa Hideki," Heiji revealed.

"Taketa-san? He was killed by the poisoner, and I can prove that I wasn't responsible for those attacks."

"Taketa _was_ the poisoner, and you found out after he killed your friend, Fujita Aiko. You'd probably been lookin' for him for a while, since you mentioned that you're friends with one of the earlier victims too. When you discovered that he was testing chemicals on the other counselors, you decided that he should die the same way, in an ironic, twisted form of 'justice'."

Conan took up the explanation. "Everyone would suspect that Taketa-san was just the latest victim in the string of poisonings, and since you had alibis for the poisonings committed by Taketa-san, you would be taken out of the suspect pool."

Jiro didn't look worried. "That's an interesting theory, but that's all you have."

"We have eight children from Taketa-san's group that saw you go into his room just before the murder. His chemicals were kept in there, and one test tube is missin'. Would we find it in your room, Okazaki-san?" Heiji bent his knees, ready to spring into action if Jiro so much as twitched.

"You're not really a counselor, are you?" Jiro smiled. "And this kid's not like any kid I've ever met."

"We came here to uncover the identity of the poisoner," Conan declared.

"And you did. Taketa Hideki was a bastard who hurt all those people, and I'll bet you have the lab notebook to prove it. He must have killed himself out of guilt after Fujita-chan died."

"How did you know about the lab notebook?"

Jiro paused. "Of course there was one. You just said he was running experiments."

Conan's hand inched toward the switch on his shoes. "Taketa didn't have the missing test tube on his person when he died. There would have been a note in the records. That means someone else did it. You had motive, an opportunity at dinner, and access to the weapon."

"Isn't the world better off without a sicko like him? He _experimented_ on people without their consent; even if I did kill him, which I'm not saying I did, would that really make me a bad person?"

"You could've turned him in," Heiji answered. "It isn't your job to dispense punishment. You decided to retaliate."

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

Group 14 looked bereft. "So, you're leaving?"

"We were just here to solve the case," Conan explained as they loaded their bags into Hattori-keibu's trunk. Jiro had been taken away in one of the squad cars when the officers found the capped test tube in his room.

"An' it's not like you wanted us here. You dumped paint on my head."

Shogo giggled. "That was just 'cause you made us go to bed. Other than that you were fun, Heiji-niichan. We got to skip band lessons and eat candy and stuff. You shoulda seen what we did to the counselors we _didn't_ like." The other kids snickered at that.

"I'm going to teach all my friends at school the hand signals," Botan declared excitedly. "It'll be _awesome._"

"As long as you don't use it to cheat on tests. Remember, detectives are a force for good." The kids smiled.

"Wait a minute," Hiroshi interrupted suddenly. "So you and Conan-kun aren't actually related?" Heiji and Conan froze. "I knew it! You _were_ being special!"

"I would _never_ be special with him, there's absolutely –"

"That idiot? Gross! There's definitely –"

"No way that would ever happen," both of the detectives finished. Fortunately, Hattori-keibu reappeared and the two teens escaped into the vehicle. The car ride was silent for a while as both detectives emphatically looked out their respective windows.

"You were right, Kudo," Heiji finally said, voice lowered so his dad wouldn't hear them over the radio. "There's no such thing as peaceful when it comes to kids. Were you such a trouble magnet when you were in your original body?"

"Are you implying that I'm a trouble magnet because I look like a child? _I_ can be perfectly peaceful. It's just events around me that aren't."

"Hmm."

"Was that disbelief I just heard?"

"Maybe. I thought you were a detective or something; figure it out."

Conan stuck his tongue out. "I'd like to see _you_ lead Mouri around and solve cases with nothing but a bowtie, a tranquilizer watch, and a soccer ball."

"And power-enhancin' shoes, and glasses with special modifications, and a Detective Boys badge –"

"Okay, I get it, you can stop now."

"–and a turbo-powered skateboard, and those elastic suspenders, and –"

"Shut up! You've made your point. _However_, I have an evil syndicate after me, go through torture every time I want my teenaged body back, and have to live through elementary school again. So I think I win whatever who's-the-better-detective game you're playing here."

Heiji grinned. "You 'think' so, huh? Geez, Kudo, you're getting sloppy there, making claims without having evidence to back up your theory."

The Eastern detective smiled sunnily. "Hattori, they will _never_ find your body when I'm done with you. Want to see my evidence?"

xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx

From Meri: Ah, the banter! I hope you thought Conan's "syndicate, torture, and elementary school" thing was funny. As I was writing, I was reminded of the trope "ArsonMurderAndJaywalking" (the TVTropes website is a wonderfully amusing place to lose oneself). Regarding Taketa's motive for picking counselors: Jiro didn't know it so he didn't mention it during his confrontation with Heiji and Conan, and my attempts to work in the explanation didn't fit well. Basically he didn't want age to be a variable in his experiments, so he picked people about the same age. He didn't have a grudge against his subjects, he just wanted to mess around with chemicals For Science. On a different note, I don't know when I'll have the next case written. Thanks for reading and please review!


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